City of L.A. Wants Construction of New Buildings to Include Catchment Systems to Handle Toxic Runoff During Rain Storms
February 2nd, 2010What is happening to the millions of people who are breathing the air that’s carrying all the pollutants that are winding up in the toxic runoff?
This is the Los Angeles Times from 2002:
A report by a Washington, D.C., environmental group says that children in California are at greater risk of contracting cancer from inhaling toxic air pollutants than adults.
The study, which was to be released today and focused on five areas of the state, maintains that a 2-week-old baby in the Los Angeles region has already been exposed to more pollution than the federal government deems acceptable over a lifetime.
By age 18, the same child will have inhaled enough contaminants to exceed the acceptable exposure level hundreds of times over, according to the study.
…
California is the nation’s smoggiest state and researchers have long known that air pollution contains a mix of industrial and automotive chemicals. Solvents, metals and unburned fuel not only contribute to smog and haze, but can cause cancer, reproductive harm and neurological damage.
More, from 2009: L.A. Air Pollution May Endanger Babies, People in General:
It looks like L.A. air could be killing us in more ways than one.
Two studies released Wednesday have linked toxic air pollution in Southern California to cancer and complications with birth.
Exposure to local traffic-generated pollution increased the risk of major complications and preterm birth, concluded a report published online in Environmental Health Perspectives. Local scientists studied the relationship of traffic pollution, preterm birth and a complication called preeclampsia that can lead to maternal and perinatal morbidity.
By measuring pregnant women’s exposure to chemicals emitted by local traffic (nitrogen oxides and particulate matter), the researchers concluded that the risk for preeclampsia increased by as much as 42% at the highest exposures. The risk for “very preterm delivery” (meaning delivery when the fetus is less than 30 weeks old) increased by as much as 128% for women exposed to the highest levels.
The study was the first to look at the connection between preeclampsia and air toxics. It focused on births in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Meanwhile, an Environmental Protection Agency study found that Los Angeles has some of the highest levels of cancer-related toxic air pollutants in the country. For residents of Cerritos, located at the heart of the L.A. basin, the EPA estimated the cancer risk due to air toxics at 1,200 in 1 million, the highest in the country and more than 33 times the national average. The statistic represents the expected number of additional deaths per million people, based on a lifetime exposure to the chemicals.
Via: Los Angeles Times:
A proposed law would require new homes, larger developments and some redevelopments in Los Angeles to capture and reuse runoff generated in rainstorms.
The ordinance approved in January by the Department of Public Works would require such projects to capture, reuse or infiltrate 100% of runoff generated in a 3/4 -inch rainstorm or to pay a storm water pollution mitigation fee that would help fund off-site, low-impact public developments.
The fairly new approach to managing storm water and urban runoff is designed to mitigate the negative effects of urbanization by controlling runoff at its source with small, cost-effective natural systems instead of treatment facilities. Reducing runoff improves water quality and recharges groundwater.
Board of Public Works Commissioner Paula Daniels, who drafted the ordinance last July, said the new requirements would prevent 104 million gallons of polluted urban runoff from ending up in the ocean.
