DEATH IN THE AIR REPORT FINDS SMOG A KILLER IN COUNTY.

Byline: Erik N. Nelson Staff Writer

An estimated 3,500 people a year die in Los Angeles County from the effects of inhaling fine smog particles, a national environmental group claims in a report to be released today.

The county's economy also loses 1.7 million sick days a year because of ailments related to particulate smog, which also triggers 217,000 asthma attacks annually in the county, according to the statewide report by the Environmental Working Group.

The report is the first time the impact of particulates was released by the county. Fine particles come from vehicle exhaust, power plants, factories, refineries, brush fires and even living-room fireplaces.

``In terms of protecting public health, cleaner air is every bit as important as wearing seat belts,'' said Bill Walker, vice president of the environmental organization.

``More people die in California each year by exposure to particulate matter than car accidents, homicides and AIDS.''

The report is aimed at drumming up support for new regulations recommended by the staff of the California Air Resources Board. The board is scheduled to hear testimony on the measure June 5 and 6 and vote on the proposal June 20.

Industry groups, primarily representing oil companies and auto manufacturers, are lobbying to defeat the proposed standards.

``Most of the data that they use has been very flawed,'' said Bill Kovacs of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has fought federal efforts to regulate fine particles. ``They're identifying people more in generic terms than in specific terms.''

Environmentalists contend that the resulting health costs amount to $500 million a year in the state, in addition to killing thousands.

The estimate of 3,500 county deaths caused by the effects of fine particulates was calculated from studies of health records used by Air Resources Board staffers to support their proposed regulations.

The number surprised Brian Szot, a 30-year-old television story editor warming up for an afternoon jog Tuesday in Warner Center.

``Wow. That certainly is a huge number of people,'' Szot said. ``Certainly that stuff can't be good for the rest of us if they are dying.''

The proposed state standards are more strict than a set of standards adopted in 1997 by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which is still working on a plan to enforce the new standards.

While the state proposal would set much tougher numerical limits on fine smog particles, its enforcement would be more flexible, said David Jesson of the EPA's Air Division for the agency's Western region, which includes California.

``Their (proposed state) standard is much more stringent than ours, and secondly their standard is a target. Ours is a mandate,'' Jesson said.

The difference would allow California regions with no hope of meeting the tougher standard to adopt cleanup plans that fall short of the state levels.

``Under the state's proposed standard, practically the whole state would be nonattainment (areas), and for parts of the state, it would be difficult to foresee attainment at any time,'' Jesson added.

Under the federal standard, it is likely that the EPA will find just Southern California and the Central Valley in violation, Jesson said.

The proposal before the state Air Resources Board would set the state's first standard for soot particles 2.5 microns across or larger.

One micron measures 39-millionths of an inch, or .000039 of an inch.

There are already standards for larger particles of 10 or more microns, but new research suggests that smaller particles are more harmful in that they enter the lungs easier and perhaps even get as far as the bloodstream.

``None of these studies have ever released the underlying scientific data,'' said Kovacs, the chamber's vice president of Environment, Technology and Regulatory Affairs.

Kovacs said regulators' claims of deaths from particulate-caused illnesses have varied widely, and the chamber's call for solid data to back up those claims have gone unanswered.

One of the biggest problems environmentalists and regulators attribute to fine soot is asthma, ``but the connection hasn't been made. No one seems to know where asthma comes from,'' Kovacs said.

That assertion was dismissed by EPA officials and researchers, who said there is a tremendous volume of research indicating that fine soot particles cause premature deaths.

``There's hundreds of papers now showing these associations in the general population in peer-reviewed scientific journals,'' said Doug Dockery, professor of environmental epidemiology at Harvard University's School of Public Health.

In recent years, results of studies of deaths in polluted U.S. cities have been supported further by controlled laboratory animal studies and even studies on how the particles affect individual cells, said Dockery, a researcher on the Harvard Six Cities study used in setting the EPA standards.

``Even the (U.S.) Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., found that there was adequate data to set standards,'' Dockery said.

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(color) A report being released today finds that roughly 3,500 people in L.A. County die each year from the effects of inhaling smog particles.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer