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Health risks from freeways worse than thought
June 15th, 2009, 5:18 pm · 9 Comments · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
UCLA has raised new concerns about the health of people who live close to Southern California freeways. Image by Paul Rodriquez, The Register
You don’t have to get on a freeway to face health risks. Merely living near one is enough.
So say researchers from UCLA, who have discovered that pollution from cars and trucks travels much farther than they once thought. And the pollution is also much thicker.
This heightened risk comes between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. when most people are either still home sleeping or going outside to exercise, says Arthur Winer, of Laguna Beach, a UCLA environmental health sciences professor who co-authored the study that revealed the risk. (Read news release.)
Arthur Winer. Image courtesy of UCLA.
Winer and his colleagues measured pollution as they moved perpendicular to the Santa Monica (I-10 Freeway) in Los Angeles County. They found that some of the pollution traveled more than 1.5 miles from the freeway, or about 10 times farther than scientists once thought.
“Although we do not yet have data for other freeways, the same wider range and higher concentration of pre-dawn air pollution is probably common throughout the South Coast and Orange County because we all share the same weather patterns,” Winer says.
Previous studies showed that during the day, air pollution from freeway traffic can travel up to 900 feet downwind. But in the daytime most people are at work or school and out of the house. (In an earlier version of this story, we incorrectly reported that it was 100 feet.)
Before sunrise, however, weather patterns in Southern California cause the freeway pollution to become more concentrated in nearby areas. Specifically, lower nighttime temperatures and ocean winds force the layer of pollution closer to the ground. The effect is intensified during the winter.
The phenomenon worries researchers because freeway pollution can enter houses through open windows, potentially causing problems for people who have asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
So what advice does Winer have for coping with this?
“Lots of people jog in the early hours, especially in Orange County,” Winer says. “I would recommend that during those hours, people should not run, bike, or recreate near major freeways, especially if there is a lot of diesel exhaust from the traffic. Also, keeping your doors and windows closed during those hours will help reduce the amount of air pollution that flows into your home.”
– Story by Ben Young Landis
Ben Young Landis
Sciencedude has a summer intern. His name is Ben Young Landis, and he recently earned his master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University. He will be contributing items to this blog until late August. Ben can be reached at blandis@ocregister.com. You also can follow him at Twitter at younglandis.
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And you still believe carbon is bad. LOL. The building block of life. This is the real pollution the so called “Green” agenda should be going after.
Welcome, Ben, Summer Intern. : ) Nice job on this story.
Curious that the weather causes the freeway air pollution to be worse at dawn - I never would have guessed that. One assumes it would be rush hour, but apparently not.
Enjoy your Intern gig.
Thanks for the welcome, chm! It’s definitely an intriguing insight into how the weather plays with air pollution. Winer mentioned that even though there were less cars in the dawn hours, the pollution is more than what’s measured during the day, because of the weather effect.
Always more to be learned, and we’ll see if any follow-up research comes out of Winer’s group.
Interesting. Wonder if this would apply to the muggy Southeast?
In the past air quality and health officials have urged folks to avoid exposure to high ozone levels on hot sunny afternoons. It takes sun and emissions of nitrgen oxides and hydrocarbons to create ozone pollution.
Hi Bill, thanks for commenting! Back in the Southeast we definitely have that muggy, still air, which would seem prime for trapping emissions. However, the study authors suggest that the SoCal weather and nightly, coastal temperature changes are keeping the pollution layer low to the ground, too, and boxing the the pollutants in even more.
Perhaps the fine folks at NC universities can chime in on whether similar weather patterns occur there?
Orange County does NOT have smog…..it has POLUTION big time …….What else would you expect when you have a tremendous amout of cars and trucks on the freeways
Good subject Ben. We have the very same problem in our valley, Phoenix Metro area. Maybe that’s why all the hikers drove to trail-head and run up to the Peak I think, better view too! Have fun with your internship!
What a good-looking intern! Nice post, Ben.
The information about the weather (winds and temperature changes) affecting pollution levels is something I ran across in Santiago, Chile. Every winter there the pollution levels shoot up and the government there starts restricting the numbers of cars allowed into the city center. There the foothills of the Andes play an important role, but so, too, does the lack of wind helping clear out the pollution inspite of the rain which tends to fall during this season. Interesting article and quite important to study the behavior of pollution more and more especially as we understand more and more of its effects on us.