Is smog that bad? (Los Angeles, San Diego: elementary school, camp, living in)

[Wisco_#1]

Like I hear all these people saying I want to leave LA because of the smog. Is it really that big of a concern to people as some make it sound?

[fastfilm]

You know, there's trade-offs for everything. Sunshine vs. smog, recreation vs. overpopulation. People leave Los Angeles for a variety of reasons. If you're curious I'll go into it, but for now I'll answer your specific question.

Unless one lives near the coastal areas, smog is noticably present to noticably bad in the summertime. If you have emphysema or other respiratory problems, they will be aggravated. Smog is particularly bad in: the entire San Fernando Valley, Pasadena, the San Gabriel Valley, and San Bernadino, Riverside county (these last 2 because the L.A. city smog usually blows east.) During our fire season, the desert winds reverse and for about 2 - 3 weeks the smogs blows west.

Regulations have slightly tempered the smog levels over the last thirty years, the reasons for the inversion layers causing smog to remain here localized will never change: sunshine to incubate it, a plethora of automobiles over a large area lacking real public transit, and the desert wind vs. coastal winds haze pockets that trap the smog here. Even the native Gabrielenos, pre-everybody else here, called the place "Land of Smoke" for this third reason.

Smog on a bad summer's day means: do NOT exercise out of doors from 10 a.m. to about 7 p.m., unless you want your eyes and lungs to burn.

[N. Weichel]

The air is much cleaner than when I moved to southern California 18 years ago. Smog is really only noticeable during the hottest part of summer anymore, and then only occasionally.

[rebagirl]

Just because you don't see the smog on a daily basis doesn't mean it's not there. The best source I've found regarding air quality is www.lungusa.org
You type in your zip code and it automatically sends a report card on air quality for that area. Another good resource is Sperling's Best Places (can't remember the actual site name--just google it in). It has compiled lists of cleanest cities and smoggiest cities, with L.A. being by far the worst year after year. If you live in Southern California, (like I do), it will make you sick! Even so-called nice areas, like Malibu, San Diego, or Big Bear Lake are smog-laden and receive low scores. Pollutants that are invisible to the naked eye enter our lungs and become embedded within. I'm about ready to get the heck out of here. Any suggestions?

[Win]

Yeah, the smog is pretty bad. I have had chronic sinus infections since I moved to LA. It's got to be terrible on the skin, too. Yuck!

[Jamileena]

I remember in the 70's when I was in elementary school, they used to have 'smog alert' days. We would have to stay in for recess because the air quality was too dangerous to go run around and play.

I also lived in in a little mountain town Crestline, at a camp overlooking the San Bernardino Valley-or as my husband calls it, "Smog Bernardino'. It gets so smoggy during the summer days, you cant see the valley below. The forest service actually has a smog testing devices set up among the trees to measure it. Its one of the places affected by the smog because its at the rim of the bowl of smog. The pine trees suffer-their needles get 'clogged' with smog and yellow spots appear like cancer.

When I drive in from Ventura to visit my mom, the orange line of smog is very defined against the blue sky, when you are driving in. Its gross.

[gmb]

I guess if you are asking the question you have never been to LA on a hot, summer day or any day for that matter. It is disgusting and when you fly into LAX you can really get a good idea about what it is like. It burns your eyes, throat and makes your skin/hair feel dirty. I don't want to know what it does to your lungs. Nothing is better than sitting on the 405 stuck in traffic breathing in the fumes......

[Jamileena]

I recently had to visit the vet with my dog. His lungs were xrayed, they believed he may have had some sort of fungal pneomnioa or cancerous polups, or it could even be scarring from pollution. They say a lot of dogs who live in this area can have this condition. We lived with this dog for 7 years on the egde of the mtns in Crestline, at the smog line-if you read my previous post, the forest service has smog measurement systems put up among the trees to examine smog levels. You think you are in the clear, so to speak, living up in the mtns with fresh air, but actually at that level those mtns are creating the San Bernardino Valley, you are at the rim of the smoggy bowl, sucking it all in. It gets really nasty in the summer. Glad we moved to Ventura.

[gmb]

You get very spoiled living in Ventura! Don't you pity the people in the valley or LA??? I hated driving every day from Ventura to Woodland Hills because you just start to experience the smog there. I also heard they did a study on babies from LA and they had lungs worse than adults in other cities, so it doesn't surprise me about your dog. So sad.

[fastfilm]

jamileena, I'm glad your dog recovered and that you were able to move to coastal Ventura county, unlike some of us.

For the record, they say living in Los Angeles is the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, smog-damage to the lungs-wise.