In Weighing the Costs of Clean Air, Don’t Omit the Value of Each Breath

Oscar Wilde once wrote that a cynic is one “who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

California Air Resources Board members should remember Wilde’s timeless adage next week when considering a cleanup plan for the Southern California’s fouled air.

The ARB must weigh not only the price of cleanup, but also the value of each breath.

Unfortunately, public testimony at the board’s June hearing on the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s cleanup plan was dominated by cynics who dwelt on the price tag.

In a similar vein, businesses and industries that profit from their polluting processes more recently suggested that Congress consider relaxing the federal health standards for air quality in view of the cleanup cost. They choke on the cost of clean air while we choke on their pollution.

The blustery outrage of polluting industries and others about the measures required to achieve healthful air clearly troubled the ARB. This, coupled with questions about local governments’ willingness to make commitments to clean air measures, caused the board to delay action on the cleanup plan.

The people of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties need to have the state board solidly behind this effort. The value of clean air deserves equal time in the cost-benefit debate. And the benefits are finally coming into focus.

A pioneering new study of the health benefits of reducing air pollution in the four-county air basin shows that the value of meeting federal standards for ozone and small particles in air (such as dust and soot) is $9.5 billion a year, or $771 per resident.

Other pollutants not studied, including cancer-causing toxics, add significantly to the cost of breathing polluted air. And yet, health damage is estimated to account for just 60% of the total economic harm of air pollution. It also damages agricultural products, eats the paint off buildings and weakens masonry, rubber and plastic products.

This study by a team of researchers from Cal State Fullerton and the University of California campuses at Irvine and Riverside found the following:

--Virtually no one in the air basin is immune from air pollution, with 98% of the population subjected to unhealthful air.

--The average resident experiences chest discomfort, coughing, headaches, nausea or sore throats triggered by air pollution an average of 16 days each year--enough to prompt one to skip sports, exercise, gardening or other activities.

--Sensitive individuals with respiratory disease and heart ailments cannot go to work or even venture outdoors an average of 15 days a year due to air pollution.

--Fine airborne particles, which in our area exceeds nearly twice the federal standard, may cause one premature death in every 10,000 people a year, about the same number as die in traffic accidents. This translates into about 1,600 basin residents, mostly with chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma or emphysema, dying prematurely each year.

The AQMD has documented the seriousness of the basin’s pollution problem. The worse offenders include:

--Ozone, which medical researchers now say permanently scars lung tissue. The ozone level in the air basin exceeded the federal health standard 178 days in 1988.

--Fine particles, including diesel soot and acidic aerosols that can be inhaled deep in the lungs. These particles turn snow-white filters in air monitors pitch black in just 24 hours.

--Carbon monoxide, which increases the risks to coronary patients because it competes with oxygen to their hearts. The carbon-monoxide level exceeded the federal health standard 61 days in 1988.

In addition, the basin is the only area in the nation that still violates the federal standard for nitrogen dioxide, which lowers resistance to infection and irritates the respiratory system.

Overall, our air pollution is so bad that the air we breathe exceeded one or more federal air health standards in 1988 on 232 days, or two out of every three days.

The benefits--the value--of clean air clearly outweigh projected costs of the clean-up program.

The four-county region that makes up the South Coast Air Quality Management District will enjoy greater economic growth with clean air than it would with dirty air. This plan will accommodate 3 million new jobs in the region over the next 20 years--a 55% increase--while still cleaning up the air.

So, we shouldn’t haggle over Southern California’s health and economic prosperity as if they were pricey baubles in a market.

We should, instead, remember the value of clean air and each life-giving breath it enables.

Clean air with economic prosperity are riches we all can value--and share.