The Air / Southern California
Air quality in Long Beach right now
LONG BEACH — The air over Long Beach reads 61 on the federal index this evening — moderate.
The pollutants, against the WHO guideline
| Pollutant | Now | WHO 24h | × guideline |
|---|---|---|---|
| PM2.5 µg/m³ | 11.2 | 15 | 0.7× |
| PM10 µg/m³ | 14.3 | 45 | 0.3× |
| Ozone µg/m³ | 32 | 100 | 0.3× |
| NO₂ µg/m³ | 40.1 | 25 | 1.6× |
| SO₂ µg/m³ | 1.5 | 40 | 0.0× |
| CO mg/m³ | 0.1 | 4 | 0.0× |
Source: Open-Meteo (Copernicus CAMS) · WHO 2021 global air quality guidelines · No figure on this page is written by hand.
What this air means
For most people this air changes nothing. The most sensitive — people with asthma, COPD, or heart disease — may notice it on long, hard exertion outdoors; everyone else can carry on.
The mechanism, briefly
Particles under 2.5 microns — a fortieth the width of a hair — ride air all the way to the alveoli, the one-cell-thick membrane where the lung hands oxygen to the blood. The membrane cannot tell oxygen’s friends from its enemies: within an hour of significant exposure, ultrafine particulate is circulating. That is why the numbers on this page are worth checking — dose is the only variable you control.
From the Air desk
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