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Cargo peril -

Southern California should not have to suffer unnecessary illnesses to serve the cause of international trade. The cargo traffic that flows through the region creates serious health hazards, and curbing that threat requires the cooperation of state, local and federal officials.

The required remedies include better local planning, along with stronger federal efforts on cutting pollution. And cargo needs to start paying for its share of the solution, instead of asking taxpayers to bear the brunt of coping with goods movement.

A study published this month in the American Journal of Public Health looked specifically at cargo traffic's effects on Riverside and Long Beach. The researchers found that 690 children in Riverside had asthma because of pollution from a nearby freeway or busy road. That number represents 6 percent of all Riverside children with the disease. In Long Beach, the number was 9 percent, or 1,600 children, with asthma linked to port and highway traffic   Read Full Article...