page_title: Pollution in California
section_title: Los Angeles air pollution
hierarchical_section_title: Pollution in California / Air pollution / Los Angeles air pollution
caption_attribution_description: English: A graph of the top ten most polluted cities in the US, eight of which are in California. The blue bar represents the highest annual number of days the city violated pollution requirements during the period 1996-2006, while the orange bar represents the lowest annual number of days violating requirements.
context_page_description: Pollution in California relates to the degree of pollution in the air, water, and land of the state of California. Pollution is defined as the addition of any substance or any form of energy to the environment at a faster rate than it can be dispersed, diluted, decomposed, recycled, or stored in some harmless form. The combination of three main factors are the cause of notable unhealthy levels of air pollution in California: the activities of over 39 million people, a mountainous terrain that traps pollution, and a warm climate that helps form ozone and other pollutants. Eight of the ten cities in the US with the highest year-round concentration of particulate matter between 2013 and 2015 were in California, and seven out of the ten cities in the US with the worst ozone pollution were also in California. Studies show that pollutants prevalent in California are linked to several health issues, including asthma, lung cancer, birth complications, and premature death. In 2016, Bakersfield, California recorded the highest level of airborne pollutants of any city in the United States.
context_section_description: Although Los Angeles remains the city with the worst ozone pollution, the state of air pollution has been improving. With a population of roughly over 10 million, the Los Angeles area is a large basin with the Pacific Ocean to the west, and several mountain ranges with 11,000-foot peaks to the east and south, Los Angeles is particularly susceptible to high ozone levels. Diesel engines, ports, motor vehicles, and industries are main sources of air pollution in Los Angeles. Frequent sunny days and low rainfall contribute to ozone formation, as well as high levels of fine particles and dust. The strong relationship between Air Quality Index (AQI) and ozone levels may be found on air pollution maps.
  Smog is formed when smoke and fog combine, and when primary pollutants, usually emitted from vehicles, react with ultraviolet rays to create secondary pollutants. When these primary and secondary pollutants combine, it creates the thick haze that can be seen hovering over the city. While ozone can protect the environment from powerful ultraviolet rays, an overabundance of this ozone can be extremely harmful to the health of people and wildlife. As the city rests in a basin between mountains and an inward-sweeping wind from the Pacific Ocean, the ozone, smog, and other toxic particles stagnate in the middle of the Los Angeles Atmosphere with nowhere to escape. Stagnate atmospheric conditions are fairly typical for Los Angeles atmosphere due to frequent atmospheric inversion (that holds multiple pollutants within over the city in the form of "pollution dome"). The effect of "pollution dome" leads to enhanced concentration of greenhouse gases as well such as methane and carbon dioxide as well. Researchers have shown that carbon dioxide enhancement in the "dome" over Los Angeles is one of the strongest in the world and it is easily detectable from the satellite observations.
  Air pollution in Los Angeles has caused widespread concerns. In 2011, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) Survey on Californians and the Environment showed that 45% of citizens in Los Angeles consider air pollution to be a “big problem”, and 47% believe that the air quality of Los Angeles is worse than it was 10 years ago. The most recent PPIC Survey of 2018 showed that the strong majority of California adults (72%) and likely voters favor the new state law mandating reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and 56% of adults support the state's cap-and-trade program. In addition, about half of Californians believe state climate policies will lead to more jobs, while the other half expects the price of gasoline to rise. In 2013, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside area ranked as the 1st most ozone-polluted city, the 4th most polluted city by annual particle pollution, and the 4th most polluted city by 24-hour particle pollution.
caption: A graph of the top ten most polluted cities in the US
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