Pollution

More than 200 chemicals -- many found in urban air and everyday consumer products -- cause breast cancer in animal tests, according to a compilation of scientific reports published today. Writing in a publication of the American Cancer Society, researchers concluded that reducing exposure to the compounds could prevent many women from developing the disease.

Don't count on sulfur dioxide to bridle climate change. The ability of that pollutant to reflect the sun is not quite what it was assumed to be, according to new research. Sulfur dioxide -- a common pollutant from burning fossil fuels, contributes to the formation of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, which reflect sunlight. Figuring out just how much this can counteract greenhouse effects of carbon dioxide and other gases has remained one of the bigger uncertainties in climate modeling.

If you are worried about the environmental impact of your travel, a Vermont technology company has come up with an app that can help you choose which flight emits less pollution. The eco-minded tech firm, Brighter Planet, developed an app called Careplane that uploads into your Chrome, Safari or Firefox browser. It launches when you search for flights on specific travel websites but works particularly well with Kayak. The app calculates pollution from each flight based on historic flight data, including plane weight, the average percentage of filled seats and fuel efficiency, among other factors.

California ports are going green. In a speech at the 28th World Ports Conference on Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the city's port is at the forefront of pushing for clean energy alternatives and reducing pollution. The conference, which kicked off Tuesday in Los Angeles, attracted port officials from around the world to discuss issues such as climate change, piracy and other problems affecting ships and the ports where they dock. Greening ports was at the top of many minds.

For more than four decades, a grimy, rough-edged stretch of Branford Street in Pacoima has been known as Dismantler Row: a stronghold of metal recyclers, trucking yards, rock cutters, salvage yards and auto body shops. Oily water streams out of yards each day, fills the cracks and potholes of the street's narrow, asphalt lanes and gushes into storm drains and downstream to the sea. Shops without names hack and hammer at cars in alleyways strewn with discarded tires and trash. Saws and sanders blow granite dust out doors and windows like a white fog. Residents of surrounding neighborhoods have had enough.

San Diego-area water regulators voted Wednesday to require pollution permits for fireworks displays over water, in what they said was the first such regulation in the nation. Operators of seaside fireworks shows from Laguna Beach to the U.S.-Mexico border will have to take steps to minimize the discharge of pollutants into the water and to clean up shells, cardboard, fuses and other debris under the new rules by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. The rules, which take effect next month, will largely affect displays along the coastline, but will also apply to fireworks over rivers, streams, reservoirs and lakes.

Re "Court to Weigh Cost Effect of Clean-Air Plans," May 31: The trucking industry and others are asking the public to subsidize their industries not only financially but with our health, quality of life and, for 15,000 people a year, life itself. They ask that cost (to them) be taken into account in setting anti-pollution standards. Why not also take into account the direct public and private costs of health care for problems caused by the pollution: increased asthma, cancer, emphysema and the exacerbation of other conditions?

Re "Borderline Efforts on Pollution," June 30: Since NAFTA started, the work force in the low-wage maquiladora manufacturing belt in northern Mexico has expanded by 50%. That directly contradicts the promise that NAFTA would disperse, not further concentrate, the unregulated and highly polluting border industry. The border is already one of the most polluted regions on the globe. Good trade agreements need tough rules to protect the environment and public health. Unless NAFTA is fixed, NAFTA's environmental crisis will worsen along the border and far beyond.

I am writing you because of pollution. It stinks! The real question is why do people pollute? I think if we all help, we can get a clean ocean. KATHY DAVIS Oxnard Editor's note: These Letters to the Editor come from E.L.M. Street School in Oxnard. E.L.M.--Educational Learning Magnet Intersession--is a new school in the Oxnard School District that offers 10-day sessions for students who are between terms in the all-year school system. Renee Nourai, learning director, said one of the themes for this year is "The Oceans."

Thank you for Larry Stammer's article (Sept. 5), "AQMD Mapping Basic Strategy Changes in Air Pollution Fight." The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) Board is indeed considering "fundamental changes in air pollution control tactics that could reshape (our) war on smog." Since garbage-burning plants pose one of the greatest threats to current cleanup efforts, the AQMD's proposed change to Rule 1301 could be significant. The quirky "grandfather clause" in the rule contains a loophole large enough to let several of these polluting plants slip through.

Re "A deep divide at Malibu Lagoon," April 30 California's "restoration" of the Malibu Lagoon has turned a nature preserve into what one activist called a "manufactured wetland theme park. " Part of the reason for the restoration was to eliminate pollution ostensibly caused by human waste. However, a study by the U.S. Geological Survey found no evidence of such pollution. Rather, much of the pollution in the lagoon is caused by droppings deposited by the thousands of birds that hold conventions there each day. This will not change.

If it's any consolation to Southern California, none of its ZIP Codes claimed the top spot as the state's most polluted, according to a California Environmental Protection Agency report. That dubious distinction went to Fresno. But three of the 10 most pollution-heavy ZIP Codes were in Los Angeles County. The other seven, including Fresno, are in the San Joaquin Valley, according to the nation's first comprehensive statewide environmental health screening tool, called CalEnviroScreen.

Two years ago researchers outfitted an electric Toyota RAV4 with a set of test instruments and drove back and forth near four Los Angeles County freeways between 4:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., sampling the air. The results confirmed that in the early morning, concentrated plumes of air pollution from freeways can travel more than a mile downwind, exposing more residents than previously thought to harmful pollution levels. Most previous air quality studies, based on measurements taken during the day or evening, have found that vehicle emission plumes generally blow no more than about 1,000 feet downwind from a major roadway before they break up. But in the hours just before sunrise, weather conditions are different.

WASHINGTON - President Obama's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Gina McCarthy, faced tough questioning from Senate Republicans at her confirmation hearing Thursday, in a clear signal to the White House that they will continue fighting environmental regulations as vigorously as they did in the first term. Obama's reelection, the gradual revival of the economy and the effects of climate change have not altered the viewpoint of some Republicans that climate change is suspect and environmental rules kill jobs.

BEIJING - As Gov. Jerry Brown tours some of China's economic hubs this week, he is breathing the kind of heavy, soiled air that blanketed Los Angeles decades ago. The soot and smog that are byproducts of this country's industrial progress are choking its people and threatening its economy. Chinese leaders are talking openly about the need to clean up the air, and to learn how from California. So Brown and a large delegation of business and political leaders have come to lend a hand, as well as to leverage China's need into business deals.

BEIJING -- The local media have given it a name: "Beijing Ke," or the Beijing Cough, defined by the China Daily as "a bout of persistent dry cough or throat tickle because of Beijing's poor air quality. " Earlier this year, the local air-quality reading was so bad that citizens were warned to stay in doors for days on end. The international media called it the "Airpocolypse. " For Beijing's 20 million residents, pollution has become a way of life. Even on the relatively good air-quality days, such as the ones that cold winds have brought here this week, locals take precautions.

On April 10, your front page read: "Gates, Bradley Agree to Stop Public Feuding." After reading this informative article, I turned to the Calendar section for the "lighter" news. I literally dropped my paper when Chief Gates' picture, depicted as a shooting target, appeared with the article by Chuck Philips ("Drawing a Bead on Gates"). You talk about bad timing and worthless journalism. I can't believe you feel eight radical individuals deserve this kind of coverage. Next time, put these types of articles with the Conrad cartoons and don't pollute the Calendar section.

While The Times (Feb. 10) headlines the story of the slow-growth initiative, this voter would like to address another issue that may be worthy of public attention before the June election. The issue is pollution. Apart from the evils of personal smoking, the air we breathe in Orange County is polluted with chemicals that are harmful to all residents. One reason it is such a problem for some residents, particularly in the Anaheim area, is that there is no dividing line between industrial plants and residential dwellings.

Researchers have linked air pollution and birth defects among pregnant women in the San Joaquin Valley, according to a study by Stanford University School of Medicine. The study looked at women between 1997 and 2006, including 806 whose pregnancies were impacted by birth defects and 849 not impacted. Researchers determined that the women who spent their early weeks of pregnancy living in areas with worse air pollution had a higher risk of having a birth defect in their babies.

Researchers in Europe have confirmed scientifically what parents in traffic-congested Southern California have known anecdotally for years: Poor air quality associated with busy roads can cause asthma in children. The study, which examined children's health in 10 cities, concluded that 14% of chronic childhood asthma cases could be attributed to near-road traffic pollution. It is the first time that medical researchers have made such a direct link - previous studies stopped at saying that traffic pollution is known to trigger asthma, not cause it. The findings are published online in the European Respiratory Journal.