A quest to clear the air
accommodate them.
At the city’s request, the developer of the Da Vinci later installed more powerful fan motors in the ventilation system to support thicker filters, said Jeff Napier, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Building and Safety.
At the Lorenzo, where lower-strength filters were already in place, the developer installed new ones “with larger surface area to accommodate the existing equipment,” Napier said.
Napier said he was not aware of any other projects where the Department of Building and Safety had stepped in.
Councilman Huizar said he hoped the city’s latest filtration rules would improve things “by making this a uniform baseline regulation instead of a case-by-case condition.”
He has asked city staff for data on how the air filtration standards are going and said “we all want assurances that the program is being implemented.”
Have right f ilters been installed?
The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety inspectors review building plans and verify air-filtration standards “throughout the project, up to and including the final inspection,” Napier said.
But the city doesn’t keep records documenting whether high-grade air filters were installed as it does with other health and safety features, such as smoke detectors.
“There’s no set form that checks a box that absolutely the filters were installed,” Napier said. “We have a construction boom going on right now. It would be counterproductive to document every little thing that we approve.”
Unless it receives a complaint, the city does not conduct follow-up inspections to see if air filters are being maintained and replaced because there is no requirement in the building code, said Frank Bush, the building and safety department’s general manager.
“That’s on the building owner,” Bush said “If we got a complaint we would take action, but nothing proactive.”
Mayor Garcetti said he supports a mandatory “check box” to track whether the promised air filters are being installed.
“That would be an easy thing to fix if they’re not,” Garcetti said. “This is not a sink finish, this a health issue, and so it should have the highest priority.”
The new filter standards will not help the 600,000 people who, a Times analysis of 2010 U.S. census data indicates, were then living within 1,000 feet of Los Angeles freeways.
One of them is Victor Johnson, 61, who has three air-filtration machines running in his one-bedroom apartment about 300 feet from the 101 Freeway in Studio City. He said he hasn’t seen much improvement in his air quality.
He blames his ongoing health problems, which include chronic headaches, colds and inflammation and high blood pressure on the pollution, which leaves a layer of fine black dust on his shelves and counters.
“Three filters and still this ultra-fine dust that’s a fine, fine black powder,” Johnson said.
“I’m concerned about my lungs. I can deal with the embarrassment of my furniture being dusty. But I don’t want the same issues as a coal miner.”