Magazine
AIR APPARENT
Over four decades after the Clean Air Act was signed by Congress, more than half the country continues to live in areas where pollution has reached unhealthy levels. Cities with different problems have taken steps to clean up the air. But is it enough?
Jesse Marquez, 57, has trouble breathing through his nose, and on high smog days, he has trouble breathing, period. Marquez has lived his entire life in Wilmington, Calif., a mostly Hispanic neighborhood that borders the Port of Los Angeles Port and the Port of Long Beach.
Wilmington is home to two large oil refineries, and a third sits just on its border, but the ports are the single largest source of pollution in SouthernCalifornia, accounting for approximately 25 percent of the region’s diesel soot and 50 percent of sulfur oxide emissions, a key component in harmful particle pollution. “It touches your life,” says Marquez, who believes his recurring sinusitis and bronchitis are due to the ports and who often drives to Tijuana to buy discounted inhalers. “It touches all your family and friends’ lives.”
The rest of this article is only available in Next American City magazine.
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