South Pasadena, Calif.–The Clean-Air Car Show and Green-Living Expo held its fourth annual fair last Sunday, attracting thousands of inquisitive environmental enthusiasts and onlookers.
The fair, sponsored by the City of South Pasadena and South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) as well as dozens of other businesses and local media, provided free educational seminars on electric vehicles, organic gardening, and the adverse health effects of air pollution.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for all of Orange County and the urban portions of Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties, which is the smoggiest region of the United States.
A technician from AQMD stood outside his booth alongside a machine that measures air quality, patiently explaining the process in which the machine captures air, filters it, and measures the fine particles, or particulate matter, that contribute to air pollution.
The result is a quarter-sized mark on a slim sheet of paper: the darker the mark, the worse the air quality. {etRelated16138, 30039}
Professor Ed Avol from the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine hosted a seminar at the fair related to the health effects of children who breathe polluted air. His research focuses on the development of their heart and lungs.
