Houston's problems are so severe that industries face a mandate to cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 85 percent by 2007 or the eight-county metropolitan region will lose billions in highway funds. Even if all the cars stopped being driven tomorrow, the city would still violate federal ozone standards because the industrial pollution is so extreme. Houston Has Had the Worst Air in America. In 1999, Houston became the city with the most violations of federal health ozone standards. Houston also had higher peak days than any city, including Los Angeles.
Ozone is a key component of smog, and a respiratory irritant.
Almost 230,000 Texas children in seven urban counties may be exposed to as much as 295,000 tons of air pollution each year because they attend schools within two miles of industrial plants emitting dangerous pollutants. It also ranked fifth in the number of cases of pediatric asthma, to which the organization believes pollutants contribute. Other recent studies documented a link between air pollution and increased emergency room and hospital visits for people with respiratory illnesses, as well as infant mortality and low birth weight. Children are more vulnerable than adults to environmental factors like air pollution that contribute to asthma, leukemia and learning disabilities, said Janie Fields, executive director of the Austin-based Children's Environmental Health Institute, whose statewide conference attended by hundreds last fall addressed the links between the environment and health for children. In Water Resources Protection.