Interactive report

Get a close look at the Valley's air-quality problem with audio, video, animations, and an interactive quiz and game. You also can check the smog-test results of any California vehicle or light truck.

Listen to Bee staff

In a podcast, the reporters on the "Fighting for Air" special section discuss the pollution challenge facing the Valley.

Stories

Escaping smog

These families and people have left the Valley, blaming health problems caused by air pollution.

Graphics

ESCAPING SMOG: The Terry family

Background: Three years ago, Diane Terry, 60, began to cough. Doctors tested her for Valley fever and other lung diseases and allergies -- and found nothing. They tried medicines to stop the coughing, but nothing worked. [See a video of Diane Terry]

Why she left: She discovered that the coughing subsided when she left her native Selma to stay at a mobile home in Pismo Beach that she and husband Dan Terry, 59, bought for retirement.

Now: Diane spends most of her time alone in Pismo, seeing her husband and children mostly on weekends. She quit a job she enjoyed as a vocational nurse at Sun-Maid Growers of California. When she returns to visit doctors and family in Selma, Diane can only go outdoors wearing a hood that filters the air: "It's affected my whole life."