Enjoying later industrial development, California was once a state whose air was considered clean. Today, in addition to the usual unpleasant air pollution, there are also fires, making the air completely unbreathable. Faced with this, wealthy people do not skimp on the means to breathe clean air.
When consulting the 2019 world ranking of the most polluted cities in the world, the major California urban centers look pretty good. Cities like San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento or San Diego are relatively far in this ranking. The first hundred places are in fact mainly occupied by Indian, Chinese or even Pakistani cities. The most polluted large city in California remains Los Angeles, still arriving 1,598th in the ranking.
According to a Los Angeles Times article published on September 23, 2020, some newspapers in the 18th century portrayed California as a state whose air had a therapeutic purity. It must be said that this region underwent a later industrial development than the east coast states. The fact is that today, California is not what it used to be when you consider the droughts as well as the air pollution. In addition, the last few weeks have been unbreathable in California due to the gigantic devastating fires.
Having become difficult to breathe, the air is the source of a juicy market for representatives of sectors such as construction. The latter offer wealthy people wanting a new home very expensive complete air purification systems. Most are state-of-the-art, capable of completely renewing the air of a place several times a day. Used by hospitals, these systems can cost up to $200,000 . If it is a question of air conditioning, filtration and ventilation, it is also a question of avoiding the possible rise of toxic gases such as radon. This therefore requires the design of adequate foundations.
Real estate agents sell already-equipped homes by such systems. However, with recent events, prices are exploding due to strong demand. According to luxury home expert Carl Gambino, these systems have become a must-have for some customers who don't hesitate to put their hands on their wallets.
For these wealthy people, breathing truly healthy air is the hope of gaining a few extra years of life expectancy. Nevertheless, it is a privilege and therefore a marker of inequalities between populations . Remember that this phenomenon has been inherent to the urban phenomenon for centuries. However, the latter is exacerbated by the presence of this type of technology in homes.
