UGH! SMOG IS BACK; STAGE 1 ALERTS REVERSE 6-YEAR DECLINE.

Byline: Deborah Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer

Breaking a six-year streak of increasingly cleaner air, Southern California already has suffered six times as many Stage 1 smog alerts as last year - and nearly as many as during the entire 1996 smog season.

The San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, and other parts of the Southland received health advisories again Monday, warning that unhealthful air could increase the risk of breathing problems for children, the elderly or people with respiratory diseases. Similarly smoggy air is expected today.

By Friday, only seven weeks after the May 31 start of smog season, Southern California had suffered six Stage 1 smog alerts - compared to only one last year, and seven for the entire five-month smog season in 1996.

``Our meteorologists have said the rest of the summer will be very hot, with very strong inversion layers,'' said Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. ``So we are already smoggier this summer than last summer.''

Thanks to the cooling effects of El Nino, the 1998 smog season kicked in at the end of June, a month late - and later than any other year on record, the AQMD reported.

But it hit with a vengeance.

Last week, during a record-breaking heat wave, the district declared Stage 1 smog alerts on four days in parts of the Inland Empire, and issued health advisories for parts of Los Angeles, and the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

Children at Arminta Street School in North Hollywood were placed on an inclement-weather schedule last week and again this week said Sandy Carruthers, secretary to the principal. Students play outside during the cooler morning hours but spend most of their lunchtime indoors, she said.

At the Jewish Homes for the Aging in Reseda, residents stay inside during the heat of the day, taking their daily walks indoors or in the early morning or evening hours, said Rick L. Smith, medical director of Grancell Village, one of the center's two main campuses.

``We don't do anything special for the smog,'' he said. ``It's all aimed at keeping them from getting overheated. The two are somewhat related.''

Those measures apparently were successful at preventing the breathing problems associated with high smog days. While Providence St. Joseph's Medical Center in Burbank reported an increase in patients with lung problems during the peak of the heat wave last week, area hospitals reported there were no additional respiratory illnesses related to the smog Monday.

Air-quality officials attributed the clean air last year, and the late start of smog season this year, to the cool, moist air generated by El Nino, which kept hot inversion layers from trapping pollutants over Los Angeles.

``A lot of last year's good air quality was related to El Nino, and we're seeing a more traditional weather pattern this year, which leads to higher readings, higher smog levels,'' said Peter Whittingham, deputy to Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who represents parts of the valleys and also serves on the AQMD board.

Air-quality activists said the worsening smog should signal that tougher pollution restrictions are needed in Southern California.

Despite a steady downward trend in air pollution over the past 20 years, ``Our air is dirtier and more unhealthful than any other part of the county. And that's not just because of the weather,'' said Linda Waade, executive director of the Coalition for Clean Air.

Gail Ruderman-Feuer, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the cleaner air last year was falsely encouraging.

``Some people last year were hailing the cleaner year as being the result of our great progress in the smog war,'' she said.

The California Air Resources Board, which regulates vehicle emissions, will be taking up that issue at a workshop Wednesday on new exhaust standards that would cut the average car's emissions by 84 percent by 2010.

The board is also proposing an even cleaner, ultra-low-emission vehicle that would release only 6 percent of the pollution of an average 1998 car. And it is proposing holding pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles to the same standard as passenger cars.

Although the board expects that those measures will meet resistance from auto makers, spokesman Rich Varenchik said they are necessary to meet federal standards that require the state to remove 2,000 tons of pollution per day from the air by 2010.

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Chart: Smog season