VOA常速英语:风景如画的加州山谷长期空气污染

Natalie Sua’s six kids live in California’s San Joaquin Valley, two of them have Asthma.

We live by the train so there’s dust that’s always getting kicked up from the train going by.And then all the smog and then we have bad air qualities.So on red days they can’t come outside and play because their asthma will be even more active on those days.

The area is between two mountain chains and that means dirty airs stick around, and there’s plenty of dirty air.

The area is a farming power house and an industry core goal between Los Angeles and San Francisco.All that translates into some of the nation’s highest rates of childhood asthma.

When I became a respiratory therapist that we all notice that in the ER that today was a smog day to expect.People through the ER who were choking and vomiting and had severe headaches.

40 billion dollars has been spent by regional authorities to try to clean up the air without much success.

The region now faces heavy fines and may lose over 2 billion dollars of federal funds if they cannot clean up exact.Local Authorities say they are doing all they can.

If we can get some funding from the state government, from the federal government, we can help these truckers for instance,you know, pay them half of the cost of the purchase a new truck and get a new truck that’s 95% cleaner,so we try to get funding and regulatory systems from both the state government as well as the federal government.

That help cannot come soon enough for local residence.States says the bad air costs 1200 premature deaths in the region every year.

I wish I can just get out and you know, relocate, but it’s kinda hard.So you just have to, like, you know, deal with it, it’s kinda, I hate to say, but you do, you know.

And for now, that means dealing with the health effects of breathing chronically dirty air.

Kevin Enochs, VOA News.