Prop 87 Reduces Air Pollution, Improves Public Health

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“Air pollution from cars that run on diesel and gasoline are major contributors to lung disease and are serious threats to California’s public health.  This Initiative will help Californians achieve healthier air quality, and that’s why the American Lung Association is endorsing Proposition 87.”

-- Paul Knepprath, American Lung Association of CA.

POLLUTION FROM GAS AND DIESEL IMPACTS MILLIONS, COSTS BILLIONS

One hundred ninety million tons of pollution is pumped into California’s air every year by cars, trucks and buses that run on gasoline and diesel.  The effects are felt by all of us:

  • California has the worst air quality in the nation, according to the EPA.
  • 95% of Californians live in areas that fail to meet state and federal air quality standards.
  • The top six most polluted counties in the nation that suffer from cancer causing particulates from vehicle exhaust are: Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Tulare, Kern and Fresno.
  • Transportation pollution causes hundreds of thousands of cases of asthma, lung disease, heart disease and cancer in California each year.
  • Asthma is a leading cause of school absenteeism, according to the California Department of Education.  One in five San Joaquin Valley children has asthma so severe they miss school.  There are 3.3 million school absences each year due to asthma attacks, according to the California Air Resources Board.
  • By the age of two months, Los Angeles-area infants have inhaled enough toxic pollutants to reach the EPA’s lifetime limit for cancer risk.  
  • The impacts of exposure to diesel and gas pollution, such as premature death, heart disease, asthma and bronchitis, cost California $21.5 billion in 2004 health care costs.  This does not include impacts such as missed work and school.

PROP 87 CUTS GAS & DIESEL USE BY 25% -- AND THE POLLUTION IT CAUSES

  • Prop 87 will reduce California’s use of gas and diesel by 25% over the next 10 years with cleaner alternatives like wind, solar and biofuels.
  • Prop 87 offers incentives for consumers and state and local governments to buy vehicles that use less gas and diesel and emit less pollution such as: flex fuel, hybrid, & electric.
  • Prop 87 legally requires any technology it supports to meet or exceed current and future air quality and tailpipe emissions standards.

Proposition 87 is supported by the American Lung Association of CA, Coalition for Clean Air, Clean Air Now, CA Conference of Directors of Environmental Health, Healthy African American Families II, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Orange County Society of Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology, Southern CA Public Health Association, Union of Concerned Scientists, Center for Environmental Health, Children’s Health Environmental Coalition, and Linda Rosenstock, Dean, UCLA School of Public Health.

For a downloadable PDF of how Prop 87 will reduce air pollution, click here