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Holidays and winter weather may be partially responsible for Southern California’s less-than-ideal air quality lately.
Wood burning is a major source of fine particle pollution, which really increases air quality concerns in the region during the colder months.
Scott Epstein, who oversees air quality assessments with the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), told LAist that people typically light their fireplaces and fire pits a lot more during the holidays.
“So we tend to see quite high concentrations (of fine particle pollution) during the week between Christmas and New Year,” he said.
The worst days usually occur when we have stagnant air masses in the region with cooler nights, higher humidity and less wind.
This week the air quality for sensitive groups was moderate to unhealthy, but that is still better than during wildfires and around July 4th fireworks.
“It’s much, much cleaner than the Fourth of July,” Epstein said. “So on July 4 and July 5, we tend to reach very unhealthy or even dangerous levels on the Air Quality Index scale.”
The AQMD publishes an air quality forecast every day based on the levels of fine particle pollution, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide for 45 different regions in Southern California. These predictions could have consequences, including a ban on wood burning.
Five have been issued so far this seasonbut we’ve seen anywhere from eight to 35.
If in doubt, you can check the air quality in your area with the AQMD air quality map.
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