A new scientific report says that the toxic pollutants causing massive levels of smog in China has the ability to cross the Pacific Ocean and create air quality problems for the western United States.

The study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is the first time scientists have been able to quantify the amount of Chinese pollution making its way across the ocean.  The study said that anywhere from 12% to 24% of the daily sulfate concentrations around Los Angeles is directly attributed to Chinese pollution related to exports.

The researchers say one of the biggest hazards is “black carbon.”  Unlike other forms of air pollution, black carbon is not removed from the air by rain.  The carbon has been found in valleys and holes in California.  Black carbon is connected to asthma as well as cancer, emphysema and heart & lung disease.

Smog in China has reached levels that in parts of Beijing officials had to turn electronic billboards into replicas of the sun so that residents would know when dawn and sunset were happening around them.