as smog thins in l.a., dramatic evidence of kids' healthier lungs - air cleaner

This is probably the biggest success story in the modern American environmental health field.
The lungs of children in the Los Angeles area are much healthier than they were 20 years ago, thanks in large part to billions
A dollar effort to clean up the infamous smoke and soot in Southern California.
In a landmark study published on Wednesday, scientists at the University of Southern California found that children in the region had better breathing than in 1994, and the proportion of children with poor lung function fell by more than half.
Scientists have come to a dramatic conclusion that they want a global response: reducing air pollution and improving people's health.
"This is remarkable;
This is one of the biggest shifts I 've ever seen, "lead researcher W.
James Goldman of the University of Southern California's Keke School of Medicine.
Frank Gilliland of the University of Southern California's biomedical and Biological Sciences program said the new findings "scientifically show that targeting contaminants actually makes children healthier.
This is a very important message for the developing world in particular: these problems can be solved and you can see great benefits.
"In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers followed 2,000 children with the worst air from five cities in Southern California, including Long Beach, Riverside, San Dimas, and Mira Loma.
They focus on children between the ages of 11 and 15 who have the most lungs.
While other studies compared children in contaminated communities to children with cleaner air, the University of Southern California team tracked children from the same community for more than 20 years, they also linked their findings to pollution data from local air monitors.
This allows them to exclude other potential factors more clearly.
Regardless of race, exposure to cigarette smoke or factors such as education and pets, children tested between 2007 and 2011 were healthier than the lungs of children of the same age tested between 1994 and 1998.
The average lung capacity of children in all communities has increased significantly, but the lung improvement in asthma patients is about twice that of other children's lungs.
The proportion of children with abnormal lung function at the age of 15 in the study decreased from 8%-1994 to nearly98 group to 3.
According to researchers at the University of Southern California, between 2007 and 6%, the proportion of children was 2011.
As air quality improved, children's lungs grew faster: lung growth between the ages of 11 and 15 was more than 10% larger than the latter group.
Maria Gugerty, a resident of Long Beach, said the parents noticed cleaner air "this is great", her 17-year-
In this study, old son Will is a representative of millennials who grew up in polluted air.
"It shows that even in a big city with serious pollution problems, you can make major changes if people make up their minds.
Gugerty, who has lived in Long Beach since the beginning of 1990, recalls often finding soot on her windows and seeing smoke --
Cover the horizon while driving.
When her son went to elementary school, he had asthma and often complained about his breathing.
But she hasn't heard him complain for years.
"You can often see this thick gunk in the air, but I can't see that much anymore," Gugerty said . ".
Claudia Copley, a high school athlete in the smog city of West Covina in his 1980 s, remembers sports being canceled due to the fact that air quality is so dangerous.
Copley said she was grateful for her two children, 18-year-old Ian and 11-year-old Piper who had not experienced the situation.
The air is now cleaner than it was when they were born;
Smog alerts are now very rare.
"I'm glad someone has done something about it," Copley said . ".
Because that's our goal, right?
Let our children live better.
"California's breakthrough pollution standards over the past few decades, California officials have set ground-breaking standards to phase out many inefficient car and truck engines, and the dirtiest fuel from jet skis and mower to school buses and heavy carsduty trucks. Local smog-
Fighters in the Los Angeles Basin were forced to clean up consumer goods such as refineries, manufacturing plants and paints and solvents.
Projects elsewhere and in the state provide rewards for replacing old trucks and buses.
Results: some of the most problematic contaminantssmog-
Form carbon dioxide and particles produced by diesel
Engine exhaust and other fossil fuels
In the worst communities, it has fallen by 50% in 20 years.
Marine pollution, especially near large ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, has also fallen sharply.
With more and more people, cars, trucks, ships, planes and vehicles driving miles in almost all types of pollution sources in the area, the air becomes cleaner.
Nevertheless, four
The Los Angeles County basin still has some of the nation's most severe ozone, key components of smoke, and particles associated with asthma attacks and heart problems.
The region still violates federal standards for ozone and particulate health.
"In this era of great importance for communication: reducing pollution is a big boon for children who grew up in Southern California," says Gilliland . ".
"But there are still too many.
More cuts are needed.
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