Why California Does It Better : The state has a clearer vision about smog

One phrase in a report on smog last week by a National Academy of Sciences study group certainly got everybody’s attention. It said that 20 years of efforts to reduce levels of ozone, which affects human health by stunting lung capacity and hampering the immune system, have failed to reach national goals. It went on to say that one reason was that “past ozone strategies may have been misdirected.”

No wonder that phrase caught everyone’s eye. Marching in the wrong direction for two full decades certainly would reduce the odds of achieving a mission.

But whatever may be said about strategies in the rest of the nation, the report also reinforced the truth that California’s smog controls are on target, moving faster than other states.

Here’s why. Two bad actors in smog are nitrogen oxide and its byproduct, ozone. The ozone in smog is created when paint fumes, partly burned gasoline fumes from a car’s tailpipe or other organic vapors combine in bright sunshine with oxides of nitrogen. The oxides are created in the high heat of car engines or steam boilers.

The report said that smog controllers generally have spent too much time trying to suppress the fumes and too little trying to control nitrogen oxides. Over the next several days, some analysts interpreted that to mean that regulators know so little about smog that stricter controls would be a waste of time and money. But, as the report also made clear, every region is different because so many variables--temperature, weather, wind and the like--play roles in smog. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to smog control.

And California has for some time applied the report’s recommendation to pay more attention to nitrogen oxides, often only after bruising fights with industries contending oxides weren’t a big problem.

For example, California has always fought hard in Congress for the right to set its own standards for smog controls.

One good reason is illustrated by the fact that the federal Environmental Protection Agency puts a limit of one gram of nitrogen oxide per mile of travel on automobile pollution. That standard is commonly used in most of the rest of the United States.

But air chemists at the California Air Resources Board long ago persuaded their policy board to impose a NOx standard that is stricter than the federal standard.

Similarly, the South Coast Air Quality Management District fought and won a campaign recently to cut down nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants, refineries and other sources.

Moral: California may not be perfect, but at least it knows what direction to take to reach its goals on smog.