A Bird's Eye View

I was in Los Feliz for lunch and decided to cruise up to the newly renovated Griffith Park Observatory since it was up the street.


When I was kid, I used to come here all the time with the family.


You can get a bird's eye view and see all of Los Angeles from the observation deck.


See that thick hazy layer of smoke covering the city, those aren't clouds, thats smog!


Los Angeles can continue being the butt of smog jokes now that it has once again topped the American Lung Association's bad air list of most polluted cities in America. The association found that the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which includes Riverside County, had the worst air based on 2003 through 2005 figures. Overall, 26 counties in California failed the clean air test.

Particulate matter also known as particle pollution or PM, is a complex mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets. Particle pollution is made up of a number of components, including acids (such as nitrates and sulfates), organic chemicals, metals, and soil or dust particles. The size of particles is directly linked to their potential for causing health problems. EPA is concerned about particles that are 10 micrometers in diameter or smaller because those are the particles that generally pass through the throat and nose and enter the lungs. Once inhaled, these particles can affect the heart and lungs and cause serious health effects. EPA groups particle pollution into two categories:

Inhalable coarse particles such as those found near roadways and dusty industries, are larger than 2.5 micrometers and smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter.

Fine particles such as those found in smoke and haze, are 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller. These particles can be directly emitted from sources such as forest fires, or they can form when gases emitted from power plants, industries and automobiles react in the air.



Health Effects

Particle pollution - especially fine particles - contains microscopic solids or liquid droplets that are so small that they can get deep into the lungs and cause serious health problems. Numerous scientific studies have linked particle pollution exposure to a variety of problems, including:

increased respiratory symptoms, such as irritation of the airways, coughing, or difficulty breathing, for example;
decreased lung function
aggravated asthma
development of chronic bronchitis
irregular heartbeat
nonfatal heart attacks and
premature death in people with heart or lung disease.

You could barely see the Hollywood sign with all this air pollution. Nasty!


The 5 biggest contributors of these harmful emissions in southern california are Oil companies such as Chevron, ARCO, Union Oil, Ultramar INC and Texaco. I ain't trying to scare you just letting you know about the shit you breathe in everyday.

PEACE YALL!