SoCal air regulators release air pollution cancer risk study

SoCal air regulators release air pollution cancer risk study The risk of contracting cancer from Southern California air pollution has declined 15 percent in the last seven year according to a long-awaited study issued Friday by regional air regulators.
   The South Coast Air Quality Management District study — named the Multiple Air Toxicity Exposure Study III, or MATES III — is based on sampling collected from 2004 to 2006. It found that Southern California's air pollution increases area residents' chance of contracting cancer by 1,194 in a million, or about 0.12 percent.
   While this remains one of the highest cancer risk rates related to air pollution in the nation, its still represents less than a 0.5 percent increase in a Southern Californian's chance of contracting cancer. Nationwide, Americans face a roughly one in four chance of contracting cancer from any cause.
   The study sampled air for 33 known toxic air pollutants once every three days for two years at 10 fixed and five temporary locations in Southern California. The fixed sampling stations were located in Anaheim, Burbank, Central Los Angeles, Compton, Fontana, Huntington Park, North Long Beach, Pico Rivera, Rubidoux and Wilmington. The temporary locations were set up in Commerce, Indio, San Bernardino, Santa Ana and Sun Valley.
   Results show that diesel particulate matter, often seen as soot from diesel vehicle tailpipes, represents just over 83 percent of the tested-for chemicals found in the samples, with the remaining toxic chemicals making up the remainder.
   The study did not sample for pollution from automobiles such as SOx, NOx, carbon monoxide or CO2.
   The MATES III replaces the MATES II report that was issued by the SCAQMD in 2000. The MATES II study was widely praised as an ambitious study, but criticized for certain methodology and the small number of sampling sites. It is also credited with creating the 'diesel death zone' map that has become the mainstay of local environmental groups pushing for stricter air regulation. The map uses colors to highlight the highest cancer risk areas. An area of the MATES II map with the most intense readings sits over the neighboring ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and along the arterial routes used by many of the trucks carrying cargo from them.
   Despite the new MATES III study sampling specifically for diesel PMs, compared to the MATES II study that estimated diesel PMs based on other readings, the new study replicates the 'diesel death zone' map, with results nearly identical to the previous study's map.
   SCAQMD will publish the study today and solicit public comment on it for the next 90 days. The agency will then prepare an update to its Air Toxics Control Plan to include strategies for further reducing toxic air pollution and cancer risk based on the MATES III data. ' Keith Higginbotham