USC study finds big air pollution impacts on local communities
Heavy traffic corridors in the cities of Long Beach and
Riverside are responsible for a significant proportion of
preventable childhood asthma, and the true impact of air
pollution and ship emissions on the disease has likely been
underestimated, according to researchers at the University of
Southern California (USC). The study, which appears in an online
edition of the American Journal of Public Health, estimated that
nine percent of all childhood asthma cases in Long Beach and six
percent in Riverside were attributable to traffic proximity. The
study also found that ship emissions from the Los Angeles-Long
Beach port complex contributed to the exacerbation of asthma.
For example, approximately 1,400 yearly episodes of asthma-
related bronchitis episodes in Long Beach (21 percent of the
total) were caused by the contribution of ship emissions to
nitrogen dioxide levels in the city. Although there has been
extensive research on the effects of traff