Living in the freeway pollution zone

Cars move along the 110 freeway in downtown Los Angeles, past the Medici apartments, one of developer Geoffrey H. Palmer’s complexes overlooking downtown freeways. More than 1.3 million people live in high-pollution zones within 500 feet of a Southern California freeway and thousands more are moving there each year.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Feb. 10, 2017 3:09 PM PT

The toxic pollutants cars, trucks and buses pump out are particularly harmful to the developing lungs of children. And since 2005, California air quality officials have warned against placing more residences within 500 feet of freeways.

Everett Smith, a renter at the Orsini apartments, looks out from his balcony at rush hour traffic on the 101 and 110 freeway interchange in downtown Los Angeles. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Mayor Eric Garcetti attends a groundbreaking ceremony for a 160-unit affordable apartment project next to the 110 Freeway in in South Los Angeles.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Mason Miller looks out of his bedroom window that overlooks the northbound lanes of the 101 Freeway in Hollywood.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The Da Vinci is one of Geoffrey H. Palmer’s apartment complexes overlooking the intersection of the 110 and 101 freeways in downtown Los Angeles.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Container trucks on the 710 Freenway enroute to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are part of the 24-hour-a-day traffic that passes next to the Seasons apartment complex in Compton.

(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

The 110 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles winds past the Da Vinci apartments. The population near Los Angeles freeways is growing faster than elsewhere in the city as planners and developers concentrate new housing near transportation hubs.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Dr. Anthony Moretti, chairman of the pediatrics department at White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights, with a young patient. Moretti says children who live close to freeways are among those who most frequently arrive in the emergency room struggling to breathe and in need of inhalers and treatment for asthma and other respiratory diseases.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Motorists on the westbound 91 Freeway in Cerritos. In background are the Sage apartments, currently under construction.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Motorists travel along the 101 Freeway in Hollywood.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Apartment buildings on Boyle Street in Boyle Heights are located near the 101 Freeway.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Motorists drive next to the Universal Lofts along the 101 Freeway in Universal City.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Black soot wiped from a 7th floor hallway at The Orsini apartments that sit adjacent to the 101 & 110 freeway interchange in Los Angeles.

(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Cars and trucks move past the Sage apartments under construction next to the 91 Freeway in Cerritos.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Motorists transition from the 405 Freeway to the 101 Freeway in Sherman Oaks next to the proposed site of Il Villaggio Toscano. The planned 325-unit apartment complex was approved in 2013 over the objections of air quality officials.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)