Yifang Zhu in Cal Matters: As Californians stay at home, air quality improves – for now

The global coronavirus pandemic has inadvertently achieved what state officials have sought to do for decades: Californians have parked their cars. Freeways and highways are clear. And the constant burn of fossil fuels has been markedly diminished.  Citing data aggregated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and Institute of Environment and Sustainability professor Yifang Zhu said average levels of tiny airborne particles known as PM2.5 dropped from about 16 micrograms per cubic meter to about 12 in the four-county Los Angeles basin after the stay at home orders.  “We don’t need a pandemic to breathe clean air,” said Zhu.  “This should be the air we breathe every day.”