Air Pollutants and Your Health

Air pollution can cause a range of respiratory and cardiovascular symptoms. Recent studies show that air pollution can harm lung development in children, and can cause early childhood asthma. Higher air pollution levels have been associated with a higher incidence of heart problems, including heart attacks, and toxic air pollutants can increase the risk of developing cancer.

People with asthma or other lung and heart conditions are most vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. Children are especially vulnerable, since their lungs are still growing and developing, and they spend more time outdoors, and breathe faster than adults.

Air Quality Standards

Air quality standards define clean air. They tell us how much of a substance can be in the air without causing harm, based on proven scientific and medical research. Both the federal and state governments set air quality standards. View the State and Federal Ambient Air Quality Standards.

In most cases, California's air quality standards are more protective of health than the federal standards. Santa Barbara County meets the federal standards for ozone and particulate matter, and meets the state one-hour ozone standard, but does not meet the state eight-hour standard, or the state standards for particulate matter. For more information on our attainment status, see Santa Barbara County Air Quality Attainment Designation.

On some days we breathe unhealthy air. We are required to adopt Clean Air Plans to show how we will reduce air pollution in order to attain the clean air standards, and to report the Air Quality Index (AQI), a scale of actual levels of ozone and other common pollutants in the air in relation to their health standard. To view historical statistics on ozone and particle pollution levels in Santa Barbara County and other areas, see this page on the California Air Resources Board site.

Ozone

Ozone is a gas created when NOx (nitrogen oxides) and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) chemically react in the presence of sunlight. Ozone is a primary ingredient of summertime smog.

Ozone occurs in two layers of the Earth’s atmosphere:

Good up high: in the stratosphere 10 to 30 miles above the surface of the Earth, the stratospheric ozone layer protects life from harmful ultraviolet rays.

Bad nearby: on the ground, up to 10 miles above the Earth’s surface, in the troposphere, ground-level ozone can damage human health, crops and buildings.

To read more about ozone and our health, including how ozone damages our lungs, and who is at risk, see this page.

The figure below shows the number of days on which we have exceeded the federal and state ozone standards each year since 1990.

Particle Pollution

Fine mineral, metal, soot, smoke, and dust particles suspended in the air can harm our lungs. For health reasons, we are most concerned with inhalable particulate matter less than 10 micrometers in diameter (PM10), and less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM2.5). Particles of these sizes can permanently lodge in the deepest and most sensitive areas of the lung, and can aggravate many respiratory illnesses including asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema. High levels of particle pollution have also been associated with a higher incidence of heart problems, including heart attacks.

The figure below shows the maximum recorded concentration of PM10 in the County since 1993.

Air Toxics

Air toxics are chemicals released into the air that are known or suspected to cause cancer, or other serious health problems, such as birth defects or reproductive effects.

APCD oversees the implementation of California's Air Toxics "Hot Spots" Program in Santa Barbara County, to reduce the public health risk from air toxics. Under this program, businesses record their use of air toxics, and businesses that are creating a significant public health risk through release of these chemicals are required to reduce that risk. See this page to view additional information on air toxics, and on APCD's program.

Vehicle exhaust contains substantial amounts of air toxics. The California Air Resources Board has identified diesel exhaust particulate as the number one airborne carcinogen in the state. Download the state's brochure on air toxics (PDF file) here.

Greenhouse Gases and Climate Change

Greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxide (as N2O, nitrous oxide), and hydrofluorocarbons, trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere in a process known as the "greenhouse" effect. Human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, are causing these gases to build up in the atmosphere. The result is global warming, also referred to as climate change. APCD does not regulate sources of greenhouse gases. However, APCD rules affecting sources of particle and smog-forming pollutants will also result in some greenhouse gas emission reductions. For more information and links, see this page.

Air Pollution/Health Links

To view historical information on ozone and particle pollution levels in Santa Barbara County, and numbers of exceedances of standards by year, see this page on the California Air Resources Board site.

For additional information on air pollution and health, see our Health Links page or our directory of all links pages on this site.