L.A. AREA RESIDENTS BREATHE EASIER : CLEANER GAS CALLED CHIEF SMOG-CUTTER STAGE 1 SMOG ALERTS DOWN TO 1 IN VALLEY.

Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer

That Los Angeles area residents breathed the cleanest air on record this year came as no surprise to Granada Hills allergist Jacob Offenberger.

Before air-quality officials announced in October that they had rolled back smog in 1996 for the fifth straight year, Offenberger had already heard the good news from his patients.

Those who suffer from asthma, emphysema and other respiratory ailments spent less time indoors this year as the number of Stage One alerts - severe air pollution warnings - was halved from 14 in 1995 to seven.

``Patients are happy, saying they have been listening to the radio for (alerts), but that they have been able to go outdoors more,'' Offenberger said. ``There is no question that we are doing something good and that the air quality is doing better. But when we talk about Los Angeles air quality, we are still among the worst in the country.''

True, Los Angeles still has some of the foulest air in the nation. But in a sign that the region is continuing to clean up its act, it was Houston that actually recorded the worst smog day this year, not Southern California for a change. And the San Fernando Valley, once known as a smog trouble spot, boasted even cleaner air than the region as a whole.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District is crediting a cleaner-burning gasoline, which hit the market in June, for the lowest smog levels in nearly half a century.

``The ongoing trend toward cleaner air is being continued,'' said Joe Cassmassi, senior meteorologist with the district. ``What shows up in '96 more than anything is that we have the introduction of reformulated fuels that we attribute to about an 18 percent improvement in air quality this year.''

Mirroring the downward trend in dreaded Stage One alerts, the number of health advisories, or days that the elderly and school children are encouraged to limit outdoor activity, also dropped from 59 to 52 compared with last year.

Local environmental organizations have applauded the ground gained in the war against smog. But they also said they feared that the new, much-debated clean-air plan adopted by the AQMD on Friday would be more lax about reducing emissions than the current one.

And, clean-air advocates added, the AQMD's four-county region, including Los Angeles, Orange, San Gabriel and San Bernardino counties, still violated federal health standards for air quality 87 days this year.

``Certainly, we should be happy with the progress that we have made,'' said Tim Carmichael, policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air. ``But it is important to remember that people in Southern California still breathed unhealthful air one out of four days last year. I don't think anyone should be satisfied with the level of so-called achievement.''

Carmichael said the Environmental Protection Agency is poised to tighten federal standards, which could make it harder still for the AQMD to meet the goal of clean air by 2010.

Although there is debate over the AQMD's latest air-quality plan, there is no question that Valley residents breathed better air than the rest of the South Coast region as a whole.

Only one Stage One alert was issued in the Valley this year when high temperatures pushed up the ozone level in the Reseda area on Aug. 29.

Ozone is the main health threat in smog and forms when hydrocarbons from car exhaust and other emissions mix in a chemical reaction fueled by sunlight and heat.

The invisible pollutant kills lung cells and has been linked to increased cancer rates. A study conducted in the 1980s by the University of California, Los Angeles, found that children raised in Los Angeles on average had about 15 percent less lung capacity than children who grew up in less smoggy areas.

The worst day for smog in the Los Angeles region overall occurred May 11 when the ozone level reached 0.24 parts per million, or twice the amount deemed effective under federal standards.

Although any Stage One alert is bad, the Valley's lone urgent advisory represents a vast improvement when considering that alerts were issued on at least 14 days in the Valley 10 years ago.

Once known for its dirty air, the eastern part of the Valley including Burbank and Glendale actually had less smog during the May through October smog season than the West Valley.

The district's smog monitoring station in Burbank in the eastern part of the Valley recorded only six days that exceeded federal clean air standards, while the station in Reseda counted 11.

``It probably had to do with weather and air flow that pushed the smog into the western Valley,'' said AQMD spokesman Sam Atwood.

But the San Fernando Valley remained far better off than the San Gabriel Valley, which suffers from some of the area's worst smog.

Cassmassi said the smog center has moved east because emissions overall have dropped in the four-county South Coast area, requiring a longer time for ozone to form. The pollutant is often not created until after sea breezes have blown the emissions well east of the city.

``The Valley is typically not the hot spot,'' Cassmassi said. ``It takes a while for the smog to cook. Points farther to the east are getting a little bit less of the improvement.''

On a statewide basis, officials credited the new cleaner and faster-burning gasoline for this year's decrease in ozone levels. The state Air Resources Board likened the effect of the new fuel on pollution levels to taking 3.5 million of California's 25 million vehicles off the road.

``It is quite a reduction,'' said Daven Oswalt, a state Air Resources Board spokesman. ``It is the biggest clean-up measure that the state has seen since the catalytic converter in the 70s.''

Cars account for about 50 percent of the emissions that form ozone.

Oswalt said the new fuel costs at least 8 cents a gallon more to make and reduces a car's mileage by as much as 3 percent. In a vehicle that gets 20 miles per gallon, the reduction would be slightly more than a half mile per gallon.

The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District recorded its third best year for clean air with 17 days failing to meet federal standards. Its best year was 1992, when the county had only 10 such unhealthful days.

Despite the improvement in the air quality, the soupy haze that often mars visibility in the Los Angeles region continues to be a part of life in the Southland.

Cassmassi said it is harder to fight this so-called particulate pollution because its highly varied sources include everything from car emissions to dust to diesel soot.

But AQMD officials said they have plans to more aggressively target particulates in their battle against smog. A recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that 8,700 people with compromised immune or respiratory systems die prematurely each year in the four-county region because of the effects of these tiny particles.

``It has only been in recent years that particle pollution has been recognized as a significant health threat,'' Atwood said.

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Chart: The war on smog