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Published on Thursday, October 09, 2008
By LA Daily News Staff Writer
An outbreak of wildfires in California last year worsened smog pollution in rural areas and caused levels to spike above federal air quality standards, a study released Thursday found.
California witnessed an intense wildfire season in 2007 with drought conditions and unusually powerful Santa Ana winds fanning flames. More than 9,000 fires blackened more than a million acres around the state and destroyed more than 2,000 homes.
Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research focused on blazes that broke out last September and October.
Using computer models and data from 55 rural ground monitoring stations, they found that drifting smoke from wildfires sent ozone pollution to unhealthy levels in 66 instances, about triple the usual number.
The calculations were based on the Environmental Protection Agency's old standard for ozone at 80 parts per billion over an eight-hour period
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