Today’s issue of the Daily 49er featured an air quality story by Roxanne Moreno as the main topic.

It uses a partial quote to describe the air quality as being in an unhealthy category, but the story fails to mention what this means, rendering the story meaningless without the reader going out of the way to research the topic.

The Long Beach Press Telegram also covered the issue, adding some more detail with data from the Port of Long Beach. However, the Press Telegram also used a vague and undefined term, “very unhealthy.”

Both stories failed to mention that the type of pollution in the Long Beach air is particle pollution that will mostly affect people who are predisposed to suffer breathing problems. They also failed to mention that the particle pollution levels are well above the federal standard.

This is a huge discrepancy on behalf of the news stories given that most air pollution issues circle around ozone and nitrous oxide—which causes smog and the most serious health problems—and the levels of both of these pollutants are well within normal.

-oScar

Daily 49er: http://media.www.daily49er.com/media/storage/paper1042/news/2007/10/23/News/Socal.Fires.Worsen.Long.Beach.Air.Quality-3049956.shtml
Press Telegram: http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_7258105
Port of Long Beach air quality data: http://polb.airsis.com/CurrentData.aspx