HEALTH : Azusa Panel to Study ‘PM10’ Air Pollution

Responding to public concerns about quarry dust and general air quality, the city of Azusa has established a committee to monitor the health effects of microscopic particles of air pollution.

The committee, comprising two Azusa residents, two rock quarry representatives and two city staff members, has compiled information about the pollution particles, known as PM10, and issued a report on their findings.

“We met with different representatives of agencies, such as AQMD, looked at data related to potential health problems, contacted City of Hope,” said Roy Bruckner, director of community development for Azusa and a committee member. “We’re trying to grapple with (the) existing PM10 environment in Azusa--is it a problem, how do we deal with it.”

Over the coming year the committee will explore options f or reducing the pollution and will organize health studies to examine its effects on Azusa residents.

Azusa’s efforts to control PM10 pollution comes just as the AQMD begins a decade-long drive to control the problem throughout the Southland.

The term PM10 designates pollution particles less than 10 microns in diameter--one-fifth the width of a human hair. The easily inhaled particles lodge in lungs and have been linked to lung disease, cancer and Valley Fever, a fungal lung infection occurring in dry areas of the Southwest that is caused by inhaling fungal spores blown up from the soil.

PM10 is released when mining, construction or agriculture stir dust into the atmosphere, or when auto or industrial emissions react with sunlight to form particulates of pollution.

The AQMD has estimated that about two-thirds of PM10 in the city comes from photochemical reactions, and the remaining third comes from dust or dirt blown off roads or from the quarries, the committee report notes.

But AQMD measurements show that PM10 emissions from three of the city’s four quarries, and a scrap wood processing plant, exceeded AQMD standards at least once during a series of three measurements.