{"id":408978,"date":"2026-07-23T03:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T03:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/408978\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T03:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T03:45:17","slug":"air-purifier-program-restarts-for-residents-impacted-by-tijuana-river-pollution-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/408978\/","title":{"rendered":"Air purifier program restarts for residents impacted by Tijuana River pollution \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

A program that distributes air purifiers for South Bay residents affected by the Tijuana River sewage crisis is accepting applications again after a two-month suspension<\/a> due to a lack of funding, county Supervisor Paloma Aguirre said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Bethany Case, a 17-year resident of Imperial Beach, is one of many from several border communities who are affected by\u00a0the chronic air pollution. She said she and her family have experienced \u201cconstant headaches,\u201d nausea and allergies.<\/p>\n

The Air Improvement Relief Effort program, which first launched in February 2025, has supplied 14,500 air purifiers so far to residents in Imperial Beach, San Ysidro, Egger Highlands, Nestor, Otay Mesa West and the Tijuana River Valley, according to Aguirre. The Board of Supervisors approved $4 million from the county\u2019s budget at the end of January, and Aguirre said she expects this to fund up to 17,000 additional air purifiers.<\/p>\n

There is a limit of one application per household: Returning applicants can request up to two purifiers and swap out old ones, and new applicants can request up to three.<\/p>\n

\u201cResidents of South County deserve something fundamental \u2014 to breathe clean air; to breathe safe air,\u201d Aguirre said at a press conference\u00a0Wednesday. \u201cNo family should have to wonder whether opening a window will bring in fresh air, or expose them to harmful pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tijuana River produces hydrogen sulfide and other toxic pollutants, which at high levels can cause early dementia, coronary artery disease, asthma and an increase in premature deliveries, according to Anne Marie Birkbeck-Garcia, the chair of the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District board. The air purifiers filter those pollutants. One covers about 350 square feet, Aguirre said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a Band-Aid,\u201d Birkbeck-Garcia told the media. \u201cWe need to fix the problem. This affects our health, our children\u2019s health, our elderly\u2019s health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The harmful levels of hydrogen sulfide were discovered in September 2024 by Kimberly Prather, atmospheric chemist and professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She said since the discovery, hydrogen sulfide levels have gone up 40% at some sites. She said most cities have less than one part per billion \u2014 a way to measure gases within the air\u2014 and she measured over 4,000 parts per billion in the air near the Tijuana River. According to APCD<\/a>, the state deems the air safe if it\u2019s under 30 parts per billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody should be breathing this air,\u201d Prather said.<\/p>\n

Applications from households with children and near the Tijuana River are prioritized, Aguirre said.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren breathe in more of the toxins through body volume than adults do,\u201d said Tom Csanadi, retired pediatrician and Imperial Beach resident. \u201cTheir brains are still growing and developing. They are more susceptible to the dangers of the poisons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aguirre said she has been getting requests for air purifiers from residents outside of the border communities, which she will look into in the future for distributing in outer areas.<\/p>\n

To apply for an air purifier, visit sdapcd.org<\/a>. They can be shipped to the application address or picked up at 1425 Corporate Center Drive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A program that distributes air purifiers for South Bay residents affected by the Tijuana River sewage crisis is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1697,7,643,1570,929,181,23,100,28973,74,84,76,75,4067,3055,4931,1696],"class_list":["post-408978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-baja-california","tag-california","tag-environment","tag-health","tag-imperial-beach","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-otay-mesa","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-ysidro","tag-south-county","tag-tijuana","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}