What good news!
Calif. air quality shows improvement
May 14, 2007
By Julia Guth
California’s air quality has improved substantially, but there is still room for progress, Robert Sawyer, chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), told a group comprised mostly of faculty and alumni on Friday.
An emeritus professor of energy at UC-Berkeley, Sawyer ‘57 outlined the steps CARB has taken to improve air quality in California since 1940, including reducing the presence of particulates and smog in the atmosphere. He also voiced his excitement at California’s landmark program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Air quality is improving in California,” Sawyer said. “There’s no question about it.”
CARB is responsible for regulating motor vehicle emissions, consumer product air pollution and toxic air contaminants. Sawyer, who has been its chair since 2005, said the regulatory board’s focus on combining government policy with actual science has produced significant results.
“We, as an agency, need to keep up with the science,” he said. “Our understanding of science is constantly changing, and our regulations must reflect this change.”
During the hour-long lecture, which was sponsored by the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP), Sawyer cited ozone and particulate matter as the biggest air quality problems, specifically in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. He attributed the increased air pollution in those regions to population expansions.
Sawyer also cited increases in particulate matter in the atmosphere as a direct cause of the heightened incidence of a number of health disorders.
“More people are dying from cardiovascular disease, probably because of exposure to particles,” he said.
Yet in the face of population growth, Sawyer insisted that CARB has improved air quality on the whole. The agency, he said, has installed a “stringent” smog check program. In 1998, the board amended the state’s Low-Emission Vehicle (LEV) regulations, effectively tightening the fleet average standards and requiring automakers to reduce emission levels each year through 2010.
