Smog costs California $28 billion

California, the most populous American state, is losing US$28 billion every year in health-related costs because of air pollution in and around the city of Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley, Reuters reported a study as finding. The costs associated with poorer health vary from missed work days, to increased respiratory troubles and premature deaths.
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Emissions from fossil fuels are the main problem, the report cited Jane Hall, from California State University, Fullerton, as saying. "We need to find ways to clean up diesel, find ways to make transportation more efficient," Hall said. "A lot of it is just reducing combustion of fossil fuels in these two basins."
 
Around Los Angeles the cost of air pollution tops $1,250 per person per year and in the San Joaquin Valley, California agricultural centre, it is more than $1,600 per person annually, the report said.

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