(First posted July 19, 2002, updated Sept. 30, 2005) -- In the public interest, LBReport.com posts a link below to hourly updated air pollution readings monitored in LB by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD).

Click on the link to display a map, then click on the "Region 4" area to display readings from the AQMD monitor in the 3600 block of Long Beach Blvd., then click on "Thus far, today's air quality" to see an easy to read graph.

Caveat: Although the data linked below are updated hourly, AQMD only provides "smoothed" data -- that is, averaged over a 24 hour period. We consider this idiotic, roughly akin to "smoothed temperature readings" (which might show 70 degrees at a time when it's actually 90). Following major mountain fires in October 2003 that produced large particulate fallout in LB, LBReport.com reported AQMD's data shortcoming and publicly urged the agency to provide real time data, not "smoothed" data. We regret that the agency has not done so to date. Instead, it says on its webpage, "Localized air quality events, such as wildfires that create smoke, may not be reflected in the data presented."

Subject to that major caveat out of our control, click on the following link to display a clickable map, THEN click on "Region 4" to access data from the AQMD monitor in the 3600 block of LB Blvd. in Bixby Knolls AND THEN click on "Thus far, today's air quality" to see charted data:

For a number of years, LBReport.com has also maintained a link to AQMD's 2001 MATES-2 (Multiple Air Toxics Exposure Study) with a map indicating parts of LB have a higher airborne cancer risk than refinery adjacent southbay areas. To view our coverage, click AQMD MATES-2 study.