Step outside, even on hazy days, and the air won’t burn your eyes or sear your lungs.
Forty years ago, before the South Coast Air Quality Management District was formed, there were no such guarantees.
Smog hung like a blanket over Los Angeles and Orange counties. On some particularly awful days, visibility could be as little as a few blocks.
Decades of efforts to clean up emissions from car tailpipes and factory smokestacks have paid off in bringing breathable air to Southern California. In 1976, according to one metric, Southern California exceeded federal ozone standards on 213 days. In 2014, only 92 days exceeded the standard.
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