PLATFORM : Everyone’s Dirty Air

We can begin to improve air quality by giving more serious study to the correlation between smog and illness. Calculating acceptable levels of hypothetical deaths per million is not enough. Assess the health of our communities as it really is.

Researchers tell us it’s tough to draw reliable conclusions. One can never be sure what kind of dirty air our sick neighbors actually breathe in, or which polluters are most to blame. We cannot afford to hide behind the veil of scientific ambiguity.

The people of Southern California deserve full disclosure and strict regulation of known contaminants, particularly in toxic hot spots. Yet, let us not be forced--especially in lower income, predominantly Latino and African-American communities--to choose between our lives and our livelihoods. Healthy air is everybody’s business. Reward industries that play it safe and inventors who develop alternative cost-effective technologies.