And Californians complain about secondhand smoke

[Tuberski]

http://homes.yahoo.com/news/america%E2%80%99s-most-polluted-cities--182250757.html?fb_action_ids=10200390549099350&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210200390549099350%22%3A414310948667663%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210200390549099350%22%3A%22news.reads%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

Summary:

8 of the 10 most particulate polluted cities in the US are in California.

ACK!

[regexcellent]

Anyone want to put an over/under on how many posts it'll be before Oerdin barges in to tell us how it's all the Republican party's fault?

[Dinner]

You're a one trick pony sometimes.

[SlowwHand]

This coming from a country that doesn't really count.

[Dinner]

Most of those are because of the geography. Though it is interesting to note that the US seems to be a couple of decades behind the rest of the west when it comes to emissions controls.

True on both counts. Yes, if you check the list the central valley is way over represented (as are other low lying valleys surrounded by mountains). In the warm, dry climate particulates get trapped in the valleys and don't get washed out of the air as happens in places where it rains more. You'll notice California does much better on other measurements such a sulfides, unburned hydrocarbons, and NOx. Also the particulate counts in the central valley always go up when ever it is plowing season because the whole area is farmland with a few medium sized cities dotting it. Wind picks up the dust causing particulate counts to spike. In any event, it doesn't effect me as I live on the coast and not in the central valley.

[Ben Kenobi]

8 of the 10 most particulate polluted cities in the US are in California.

In before Dinner blames Mexicans.

[DaShi]

Anyone want to put an over/under on how many posts it'll be before Oerdin barges in to tell us how it's all the Republican party's fault?

I blame China.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/12/01/california-pollution-made-in-china/tab/print/

California Pollution: Made in China?
Scientists have long known that pollution and dust from China travels over the Pacific to the western United States. What they haven’t been able to figure out is how much. Until now.


Bloomberg News
A Chinese coking factory: How much of this exhaust ends up over Fisherman’s Wharf?
In a paper published in the latest issue of the scholarly journal Environmental Science and Technology and picked up by Chemical & Engineering News, a team of geochemists announced that they have developed a method for tracing fine airborne particulate pollution (also known as PM2.5 because the particles are less than 2.5 microns wide) with origins in East Asia by testing for a specific lead isotope, 208Pb, found in greater concentrations in coal and metal ores from the region.

Led by University of California, Berkeley, postdoctoral researcher Stephanie Ewing, the team applied the isotope filter to samples from the San Francisco Bay Area, curious to see how much of northern California’s pollution came from East Asia.

The answer? A lot.

From the Chemical & Engineering News report:

From December 2007 through May 2008, the researchers collected particulate pollution samples from two sites in the San Francisco Bay Area: an urban location, Chabot Observatory, as well as a coastal location, Mt. Tamalpais, where city pollution would be limited. They filtered out the PM2.5 from the samples and measured its lead isotope abundances with multiple-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICPMS).
At both sites, levels of 208Pb jumped at the same time between March and May. This isotope spike coincided with the spring, when Asian dust storms are most intense, so the researchers concluded that 208Pb isotopes are a marker for PM2.5 from eastern Asia. When they analyzed data from the entire six-month survey, Ewing and her team found that the median proportion of Asian lead in the PM2.5 was 29%.
The question now is how much of that 29% can be attributed to San Francisco’s penchant for China-made iPhones and iPads?

– Josh Chin. Follow him on Twitter @joshchin

[PLATO]

California...where everyone is waiting on "the big one" so they can surf to Denver.

[Colon™]

I blame China.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2...ina/tab/print/

I bet there's no pollution spillover from North Korea. They aren't all bad.

[Tuberski]

True on both counts. Yes, if you check the list the central valley is way over represented (as are other low lying valleys surrounded by mountains). In the warm, dry climate particulates get trapped in the valleys and don't get washed out of the air as happens in places where it rains more. You'll notice California does much better on other measurements such a sulfides, unburned hydrocarbons, and NOx. Also the particulate counts in the central valley always go up when ever it is plowing season because the whole area is farmland with a few medium sized cities dotting it. Wind picks up the dust causing particulate counts to spike. In any event, it doesn't effect me as I live on the coast and not in the central valley.

San Diego; in 3.5 years of entering and leaving the port, I saw Mexico in the distance 1 time, I wondered what it was. Usually , it was a big brown cloud.

;p ACK!

[MRT144]

Anyone want to put an over/under on how many posts it'll be before Oerdin barges in to tell us how it's all the Republican party's fault?

Republicans DO love their cars.

[regexcellent]

You're a one trick pony sometimes.

You're just angry cause I stole your thunder.

[Alexander's Horse]

8 of the 10 most particulate polluted cities in the US are in California.

was that before or after they legalised pot?

[giblets]

I blame China.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2...ina/tab/print/

And Nixon normalized relations with China, so ultimately the Republicans are responsible.

[Dinner]

San Diego; in 3.5 years of entering and leaving the port, I saw Mexico in the distance 1 time, I wondered what it was. Usually , it was a big brown cloud.

;p ACK!

If you look it up San Diego has great air quality. What you're talking about is the marine layer or haze which tends to burn off by about noon.

http://www.sdapcd.org/air/forecasts/otoday.html

The closest one to me in Kearney Mesa. There is a lot of yellow on the graph which surprised me but I'm told the summer time is actually the worst WRT air quality because warm temperatures effect air quality. Over all though for a large city it has pretty good air quality.