During cold winter nights, residents of Los Angeles county might think twice about lighting up the fireplace if any one of those nights fell on a day of heavy air pollution.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District passed new regulations last Friday, March 7, that would impose fines for firing up the chimney during "high-pollution" days, and prohibit builders to install wood-burning fireplaces in new homes, although gas burning hearths are allowed, according to the Times.
Those exempt would be restaurants, such as California Pizza Kitchen, homes that use fire for energy and homes above 3,000 feet elevation.
Beach fires and ceremonial fires are exempt, as well as coastal homes where breezes commonly exist.
The smoke emitted from chimneys make up about 6 tones of particulate matter, according to the district, per day, and the new ban would reduce that average about 1 ton, of the 106 tones of soot put out daily by either car emissions, or coal refineries or any other sources.
The new regulations are due to the increasing number of particulates found in the LA area's air, that can travel to other regions and cause a number of respiratory illnesses for residents, and about 5,000 premature deaths each year.
The LA basin is surrounded by ports that some say are largely responsible for an out pour of particulates, nitrogen oxide and sulfur, and soot from heavy diesel-burning engines on tankers. The ships that come to the harbors are the source of heavy clouds of smog pollution that then is baked in the sun producing a low lying layer of ozone, a toxic poisonous gas that is invisible. The hard to see particulates can then enter the lungs causing asthma and other cardiovascular and respiratory problems in nearby cities and canyons where the smog ends up.
The smog and pollution has frequently caused the region to perform below federal health standards.
No comments:
Post a Comment