Smog Board Plans Focus on Children

In an effort to protect those most vulnerable to smog--Southern California’s children--the chairman of the region’s air quality board on Friday directed the agency’s staff to prepare a 10-step program to inform educators, parents and pediatricians about the dangers of air pollution.

William Burke, who heads the South Coast Air Quality Management District, initiated the Children’s Air Quality Agenda. The proposal expands the environmental justice efforts he mounted last year, Burke said, because children, along with residents of poor and minority communities, suffer disproportionate effects from pollution in the Los Angeles Basin.

Children are considered most susceptible to smog because of their narrow airways, developing immune systems and a high rate of asthma. Scientists say that children inhale far more pollutants per pound of body weight than adults, and they are more likely to exert themselves outdoors.

“Millions of children in the South Coast Air Basin are exposed to the worst air pollution in the nation,” Burke told the board Friday. “Their health and their quality of life is directly and uniquely affected by poor air quality.”

If adopted by the board next month as expected, the program for children in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties would include an AQMD conference in which school officials, including coaches, will learn the risks to children and discuss ways to minimize exposure. Schoolchildren often play sports during the afternoon when ozone, the main ingredient of smog, is at its peak.

Also, another conference would update pediatricians on the latest findings about health effects of pollution, and the AQMD would seek funds for mobile asthma clinics to travel to schools and sports league sites, similar to a program already operated by UCLA.

AQMD staff members would also adopt a school, with each person visiting one school a year in the region to discuss air pollution with children. The agency would also team up with local museums to sponsor exhibits, and a special panel of advisors would report to the board and focus on children’s health.

Burke, whose chairmanship of the AQMD has been marked by sparring between board members, surprised the board with the proposal at Friday’s meeting. He asked the staff to develop a plan for implementing his 10 steps and bring it to the board for approval in January.

Scientific studies repeatedly have shown that children lose lung function--triggering coughing and tightness of the chest--when playing outdoors on smoggy days. Smog and soot also can trigger eye and throat irritations, headaches and serious respiratory infections such as bronchitis.

Youngsters also are prone to asthma, a disease that is exacerbated--perhaps even caused--by urban air pollution.

In the United States, one out of every 13 children suffers from asthma, and it is the No. 1 cause of hospitalization among youngsters.

The American Lung Assn. reported Friday that nearly half of all Los Angeles-area children with asthma had attacks that caused an emergency room visit at least once in the past year.

The health risk of pollution would be greatly reduced if the region were to clean up enough pollution to achieve national smog standards. But achieving that target will remain elusive for at least a dozen years.