Air Pollution Levels Increased Slightly in S.D. County in 1988

San Diego County skies were slightly smoggier in 1988, prompting air pollution control authorities to call for two Stage One smog alerts and record 45 other days when ozone levels exceeded minimum federal standards.

Those statistics, released Wednesday, are up from one smog alert and 40 days of excess ozone levels recorded in 1987 by the county’s Air Pollution Control District.

But the increase is no cause to worry, said R. J. Sommerville, the county’s air pollution control officer. It was attributed to the extremely hot weather, which plagued all of the country and prompted smog problems everywhere.

“Last year was one of the hottest years in the United States and there were widely publicized accounts of elevated pollution and smog levels throughout the United States, including places like New York, which does not normally have the levels that were experienced last year,” said Sommerville.

Sommerville added that even with the slight increase, the 1988 smog statistics are in keeping with a 10-year trend toward cleaner air in San Diego County. In 1978, there were 90 days of excess smog and 11 smog alerts, statistics show.

Smog--the bane of Southern California--is produced by a photochemical reaction in the atmosphere between sunlight and hydrocarbon emissions and oxides of nitrogen. In San Diego, about 80% of the oxides of nitrogen and half of the hydrocarbons come from motor vehicle emissions.

The federal minimum health standard for smog is 12 parts per hundred million (p.p.h.m.) for one hour. Anything over that is, in air pollution parlance, called an “exceedance” and affects the lungs of normal individuals.

Smog detected at 20 p.p.h.m. or greater triggers a Stage One Alert, during which the elderly, children and people with respiratory and cardiac problems are advised to limit their physical activity. A Stage Two Alert is called when smog exceeds 35 p.p.h.m..

No Stage Two Alerts were called in San Diego County during 1988, but one was called in the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, and parts of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

The Los Angeles-Orange County air basin also registered 76 Stage One alerts and 172 other days when the ozone exceeded the federal minimum levels.

Sommerville said Wednesday that most of the smoggy days in San Diego County are caused by the bad air drifting south from the Los Angeles-Orange County basin. Although the analysis for 1988 is incomplete, previous studies have shown that 25 to 30 smoggy days a year in San Diego are caused by the “transported” ozone from the north, he said.

Sommerville said automobile smog controls are to thank for the trend toward cleaner air in San Diego during the last decade. But by the mid-1990s, the trend could be reversed by urban growth, which will send a glut of cars streaming onto local highways and roads, he said.

“We have more people owning more cars, driving them longer distances and more frequently,” Sommerville said. “Our highways are getting congested and all that implies more smog.”

To compensate for the growth, Sommerville said air pollution officials are trying to devise ways to control auto use--especially for commuters--to minimize smog. Answers may include flex hours and van and car pooling.

Sommerville also said that the air pollution district will also turn its attention to other sources of ozone, such as household cleaning products, aerosol sprays and stick deodorants.

“Many people don’t know that the deodorants they are using are made out of materials that evaporate into the atmosphere,” said Sommerville. Other contributors to ozone include bathroom cleaners and solvents, such as chemicals used to remove spots from rugs, he said.