Homes along the Southland’s busy highways may be more affordable, but new studies show possible health risks linked to increased pollution.

At sunset, Regina Kennard’s house stands in the shadow of an elevated stretch of Interstate 15. Attracted by the home’s affordability and its proximity to the onramp for her daily commute to work at a mortgage company in Orange County, Kennard moved from Ontario to Fontana more than a year ago and joined countless other Southern Californians who live along a freeway.

The mother of two chose the 4,729-square-foot lot next to the freeway because it was bigger than those farther up the street. She purchased the 1,977-square-foot home new last year for $189,900.

“I wanted a big yard,” said Kennard, who keeps the windows shut at night because of the din. “I should have been more concerned. I didn’t realize the noise.”

Even further from her thoughts were the long-term health effects of freeway pollution. Like most buyers, Kennard was unaware of emerging scientific research that shows air pollution immediately downwind of freeways can be more than 4 to 10 times higher than average levels throughout much of Southern California.

“There’s a building body of data that living next to a freeway has adverse health effects, particularly among children,” said Ira Tager, a UC Berkeley epidemiologist who is studying how air pollution affects asthmatic children for the California Air Resources Board. Work by a variety of health researchers and environmental agencies is finding that the highly concentrated pollution from autos and trucks increases the incidence of asthma, respiratory infections and cancer in people residing along freeways and other heavily traveled thoroughfares.

The studies, some of which have come out in California during the last year and others that are ongoing, are attracting attention as new homes and condominiums have become more common along freeways because of the shrinking availability of land suitable for building and the increasing demand for housing.

If buyers are unaware of the health dangers, so are builders. “It’s new information to me,” said Tim Piasky, director of environmental affairs for the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California, who noted that individual builders cannot track every study.

“We count on our regulatory agencies to set the requirements,” he said. “Unless there are requirements, builders will use the maximum area.”

There are no current requirements or recommendations for buffers between homes and freeways, but the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research has drafted new planning guidelines for cities and counties, which are responsible for regulating local land use. The guidelines, according to associate planner Brian Grattidge, ask cities to consider whether it is appropriate to zone housing right next to freeways, given the emerging studies on air pollution.

The California Air Resources Board will issue its first official warning in the spring and advise, but not require, that builders create buffer zones between future residential developments and freeways.

“People who construct new homes should consider having at least 100 meters [less than a tenth of a mile] between them and the freeway,” said Shankar Prasad, health advisor for the board.

Buyers have long been aware of home health risks ranging from ground water contamination -- think Erin Brockovich -- to the interior culprits of leaded paint, mold and asbestos. But most haven’t considered air pollution levels along freeways, according to real estate broker Remy Agaton, who is selling the home of Lydia Fabres, just one house north of Interstate 10 in West Covina. Like Kennard, Fabres did not know about the studies showing higher pollution levels.

“Out of 100, maybe 10 are concerned about the noise, and they never ask about the pollution,” said Agaton of Jasrel Real Estate Brokers Inc. in the City of Industry. Buyers are more concerned about amenities, such as good schools and proximity to shopping and transportation routes, said Agaton, who has sold many homes near freeways in her 17-year career.

Fabres, a single mother of four teenagers, said that the location is what attracted her to the West Covina home. She worked in the health-care field near downtown Los Angeles when she purchased the house three years ago after a divorce, and freeway proximity saved the busy mother time.

“It was an advantage,” she said. “When you came home it was close.” It also was close enough for her children to walk to school, a nearby park and the West Covina Plaza.

The noise bothered the family at first, and Fabres said she was fleetingly concerned about pollution. However, she found that the location and features of the three-bedroom, two-bath home with a den and large backyard outweighed those concerns. Fabres is taking time off from work to sell her home and move to Walnut for its schools and proximity to Mt. San Antonio College, where her children, who have no respiratory disease, plan to continue their education after completing high school.

In addition to saving time, buyers are often attracted to freeway-close homes because of lower prices, according to real estate industry executives. Fabres, for instance, is asking $275,000 for her home.A couple blocks farther north of Interstate 10, a comparable three-bedroom home in the same neighborhood sold for $289,900 in mid-November.

“Home prices near freeways generally are less expensive,” said John Burns, president of John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Irvine. A rule of thumb, he said, is that these homes cost the buyer about $5 less per square foot than a comparable home in the same area far enough away that buyers do not perceive the freeway as a negative.

But researchers are beginning to document the drawbacks. Large doses of pollutants emitted by motor vehicles can irritate the respiratory system and exacerbate asthma and chronic bronchitis, from which 10% to 20% of the population suffers, according to Dr. John Balmes of UC San Francisco. Published studies examining the respiratory health of people along freeways show a 75% to 100% increase in asthma because of the higher concentration of air pollutants, said Balmes, former president of the California Thoracic Society, the medical section of the American Lung Assn. of California. Some of the pollutants, including benzene and diesel soot, are known carcinogens.

One study published earlier this fall in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Assn. shows that the level of so-called ultra-fine particles, which are emitted from automotive tailpipes but are too small to be visible, was four times higher just downwind and east of the 405 Freeway in Westwood. About a fifth of a mile downwind, the level of the particles gradually fell to the same level as upwind of the busy freeway, wrote the research team, headed by William C. Hinds, a professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA. Carbon monoxide, a good indicator for a range of other automotive emissions, also fell sharply a fifth of a mile downwind of the freeway.

Environmental health scientists are particularly worried about ultra-fine particles because they can penetrate deep into the respiratory system.

In another study in the Los Angeles area, the South Coast Air Quality Management District found that the risk of contracting cancer from air pollution, particularly lung cancer, was up to twice or more as high right along the freeway than in other areas of the region, except for those with both dense traffic and heavy concentrations of industry.

Like many Southern Californians, Kennard, who grew up in Altadena, is used to air pollution. “As you drive into the inland area, you see the smog haze,” she said. “However, I can’t say that I paid too much attention. My children do not have any respiratory issues.”

Yet, Kennard said she is concerned about what the studies reveal. “I would move, if I could, to a cleaner area.”

Until environmental and zoning regulators complete ongoing studies and develop guidelines or regulations, home buyers must carefully weigh the benefits and health risks of being near a freeway. Said epidemiologist Tager: “If I were a parent with young children and had a choice between a nice home near a freeway and one not so nice but away from a freeway, I’d buy the one away from the freeway.”

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William J. Kelly is a freelance writer and the editor of California Environment Report. He can be reached at southlandreports@earthlink.net