LAT: Study Doubles Estimate of Smog Deaths

[question everything]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-smog-25mar25,1,5621069.story

From the Los Angeles Times

Study Doubles Estimate of Smog Deaths

USC researchers amass measurements of lethal particulate matter from hundreds of locations in the L.A. Basin. State may raise its official figures.
By Janet Wilson
Times Staff Writer

March 25, 2006

The number of deaths from breathing sooty smog in California may be more than twice as high as previously estimated, based on a recent USC study that examined the risk of such deaths in the Los Angeles Basin.

A team of researchers headed by Michael Jerrett, associate professor of preventive medicine, found two to three times greater risk of mortality from heart attacks, lung cancer and other serious illness tied to chronic exposure to fine particulate matter than did previous studies.

The study looked at specific soot measurements and deaths in hundreds of neighborhoods — rather than relying on citywide annual averages used in the past — and detected the largest increased risks in the Inland Empire, Jerrett said.

Fine particulate matter spewed out by cars, trucks, locomotives, ships, planes, refineries and other sources lodges deep in the lungs and is widely considered the most lethal form of air pollution.

(snip)

[RedEarth]

1. A friend of mine lived in LA for a year

and within one month of moving there developed chronic bronchitis. Within just a few weeks of leaving, it cleared up.....doesn't sound like a healthy place to live.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Second hand smog......... isn't very nice.... outlaw it I say. n/t

[High Plains]

3. Hack hack hack

Ban automobile driving except inside your own garage, where your noxious addictions won't hurt those of us who are sensitive.

I wonder how the air is in Calabasas these days.