We've know for some time that the Valley's foul air can be deadly. We didn't know just how deadly.
The California Air Resources Board released the results of a two-year public health study Wednesday, and the bad news is that PM-2.5, or fine-particle pollution, is 70% more lethal than scientists had earlier suspected. Here's today's story from The Bee.
In blunt terms, it means as many as 3,000 people die prematurely each year in the Valley because of fine-particle pollution. We thought it was bad when the estimate was 1,000 premature deaths annually, and it was. Now it's worse.
The news comes as CARB members gather in Fresno today to vote on a plan for reducing PM-2.5 pollution that many feel is weak. We hope it's not too much to ask that they bear their own new study in mind as they weigh their decision.
This should become THE campaign issue, the chamber of commerce wants it to go away judging from the tone on Al Smith's kmj-talk, this is being dismissed as just another wacko-enviromentalist flight of fancy.