Pollution

Smog and pollen can make outdoor cycling and running sound pretty unhealthy. To cut down on grit and allergens, there's Respro, a new anti-pollution mask expected to be available this month in local sporting goods stores. The strap-on mask's replaceable charcoal filter protects against low level pollutants, pollen and ozone, according to Thomas Ashcroft of Respro North America, who distributes the mask in the United States.

Re "Yangtze dolphin extinct, experts say," Dec. 14 Who is China trying to fool? It remains among the biggest polluters on the planet. In 2005, China was responsible for two of the largest major environmental disasters when separate chemical plant explosions pumped 100 tons of carcinogenic benzene and other toxic compounds into two major waterways, the Songhua and the Yangtze rivers. In pure Mao fashion, the Chinese government delayed alerting 360 million people affected by the spill for 10 days while it figured out what to do. Are we really to believe the quote from the Chinese scientist concerning the extinction of the 20-million-year-old dolphin species: "It did not appear that pollution was a culprit"?

Re "O.C. Farmland Will Yield to Offices," May 24: It is inevitable that the city of Irvine and its "rich uncle," the Irvine Co., rezone for commercial development. It makes no sense for a "company" to maintain open space when there is money to be made. The only surprise is how outlandish the reasoning becomes to justify their capitalistic actions. P. Richard Edmondson Laguna Beach Readers could not help notice the connection between the story today on the pollution of kiddie beaches in California and the story on the decision of the city of Irvine to allow commercial development of 10.2 million square feet of Orange County farmland.

Mayor Gavin Newsom has proposed taxing carbon dioxide emissions and charging motorists for driving in certain areas of the city as incentives to combat global warming and increase the use of public transportation. Newsom plans to ask voters to approve a ballot measure in November that would increase utility bills on businesses as a way to decrease energy consumption. The additional revenue would be used to reduce payroll taxes. Newsom said his goal is to phase out some taxes on business and tax pollution instead.

Re "Oxnard Beach Called Area's Most Polluted," May 25. In a beautiful little harbor on the California coast there is a sheltered beach where families bring their toddlers to play in the water. "Kiddie Beach" in Channel Islands Harbor is a great day out, and it's free. These families can't afford expensive recreation, and they feel their small children are safe away from the waves crashing on the open seashore. The problem is that they are wrong. Their children are at risk of serious disease from the heavily polluted water at this beach.

After a series of delays, NASA launched its Aura satellite into orbit Thursday at 3:01 a.m., commencing a six-year mission that could provide the most detailed measurements to date of the Earth's ozone layer, pollution levels and changing climate. The $785-million satellite is the first to focus on pollution in the troposphere, the roughly six-mile-thick region in the atmosphere that contains the air we breathe.

With surfers increasingly on the front lines of the bacterial cocktails flowing from coastal runoff, the surf business is stepping up its role in the clean water fight. The Surf Industry Manufacturers Assn., or SIMA, has distributed $320,000 to eight environmental groups to combat pollution, conserve sensitive sites, maintain the integrity of established surf breaks and spread the eco word to the younger generation of surfers.

Texaco Inc. must face lawsuits alleging that it polluted parts of the Amazon rain forest and damaged the health of Ecuadorean and Peruvian Indians, a federal appeals court ruled. The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York reinstated the suits against the White Plains, N.Y.-based oil company centering on allegations that it dumped toxic petroleum byproducts in the rain forest region during 28 years of oil exploration.

An environmental group sued PacifiCorp and California's wildlife agency Tuesday over claims that a Klamath River fish hatchery is releasing pollution that is deadly to fish downstream. Klamath Riverkeeper, part of an alliance headed by environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr., filed suit in U.S. District Court in Sacramento alleging discharges from the hatchery violated the Clean Water Act. At issue is the hatchery at the Iron Gate Dam on the Klamath near the Oregon border.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District has responsibility to control air pollution in the area. It has the power to seek court-imposed fines against polluters of from $25 to $25,000 a day based on such factors as the extent that emissions exceed legal limits, potential danger to the public, whether the violation was intentional, accidental or due to negligence, and the company's history of violations.