Honolulu's air quality is nearly the best in the nation and expected to improve with state legislation enabling counties to ban fireworks, the American Lung Association of Hawaii said.

Association Director Jean Evans said New Year's Eve is the only day that Honolulu's air quality exceeds long-term pollution levels set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Evans said her association anticipates Honolulu will pass a ban on fireworks now that the counties have been given the authority to outlaw them.

“;With that legislation, the air quality will improve on Oahu and other islands, if they choose to regulate it,”; she said.

State law allows consumer fireworks on New Year's Eve, Chinese New Year's Day and July 4. Aerials and other dangerous explosives are illegal except at events with permits.

Evans said some 175,000 people in Hawaii have some kind of lung disease.

  Honolulu ranks third in air quality study

 

The study doesn't take vog into account because it isn't a man-made problem.

 

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Fortunately, the tradewinds clear out much of the pollution generated by automobile exhaust and other sources.

The review of air quality, conducted by the American Lung Association, focuses on man-made pollution in metropolitan areas and does not include rural areas on the Big Island, where residents are severely affected by volcanic emissions.

Evans said sulfur dioxide emissions have been detrimental to the health of people on the Big Island.

Six in 10 Americans—about 175 million people—live where air pollution often reaches dangerous levels, despite progress in reducing particle pollution, the association said in a report released yesterday.

The report examined fine particulate matter over 24-hour periods and as a year-round average. Bakersfield, Calif., had the worst short-term particle pollution, and the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area of Arizona had the worst year-round particle pollution. The Los Angeles area has the nation's worst ozone pollution.

The U.S. cities with the cleanest air overall were Fargo, N.D.; Wahpeton, N.D.; and Lincoln, Neb.

The report gave Bakersfield an “;F”; grade—again.

The association credited cleaner diesel engines and controls on coal-fired power plants for decreasing pollution such as soot and dust. But the report estimates that nearly 30 million people live in areas with chronic levels of pollution so that even when levels are relatively low, people can be exposed to particles that will increase the risk of asthma, lung damage and premature death.

About 24 million people live in 18 counties with unhealthy levels of ozone, short-term particle pollution and year-round particle pollution, the report said, adding that new research shows the risk of health problems from pollution might be worse than once thought, especially for infants and children.

The California Air Resources Board has tripled its estimates of premature deaths in California from particle pollution to 18,000 a year, the report said.

Star-Bulletin reporter Gary T. Kubota and the Associated Press contributed to this report.