A team of UC Riverside environmental engineers are embarking on a $3.5 million study of air pollution from massive oceangoing vessels that frequent the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach—one of the region’s largest sources of toxic air pollution.
The 30-month study, funded through legal settlements administered by the Oakland-based Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, will be among the most comprehensive efforts to date to track ship emissions and their impacts on neighboring communities, said project leader David Cocker, a professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering in UCR’s Bourns College of Engineering.
“This research will help close critical knowledge gaps and give frontline communities and regulatory agencies the information necessary to advocate for public health and shape policies related to port activity,” Cocker said.
Ships delivering goods from Asia and other continents are among the biggest contributors to airborne toxins in Southern California. Their diesel engines emit a toxic mix of soot and other pollutants linked to serious health problems, including impaired lung development in children, elevated cancer risk, and reduced life expectancy.
But ships aren’t the only pollution source near the ports. Los Angeles communities—including San Pedro, Wilmington, Long Beach, and Carson—also contend with emissions from diesel trucks, trains, and cargo-handling equipment, though the ports are transitioning to zero-emission machinery.
Cocker’s team aims to pinpoint the pollution specifically attributable to ships. Using advanced instruments, the researchers will identify and track the unique chemical “fingerprints” emitted from ship smokestacks—complex blends of hundreds of compounds that differentiate one vessel from another.
“We can actually look at the signatures of ships, collect those same signatures in the surrounding community, and match them,” Cocker said. “This gives us a strong foundation for determining how much pollution is coming from oceangoing vessels.”
To accomplish this, the researchers will rely on three major data sources: air samples from land-based monitors in affected neighborhoods, samples taken directly from ship smokestacks, and samples gathered midair by a commercial-grade drone that follows exhaust plumes over the ocean.
A centerpiece of the study, the drone will be equipped with real-time sensors and high-precision air samplers to measure pollutants such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and black carbon particles. Some samples will be analyzed immediately using trailer-based labs, while others will be sent to UCR’s College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) for deeper analysis.
The team expects to sample emissions from up to 100 ships within the first year of deployment. Traditional stack testing aboard selected ships will validate drone-collected data and help build a reference library of ship emission profiles. These profiles will then be compared to air samples collected in surrounding communities.
Three stationary air monitoring stations will be installed in port-adjacent neighborhoods. Their locations will be selected with input from community members and will continuously collect pollution data.
“We’re trying to understand what’s in the community air and compare it to what’s coming off the ships,” Cocker said. “By matching chemical signatures, we can determine how much of the community’s exposure comes from port traffic.”
The research team will also use meteorological data to conduct “back-trajectory” modeling—tracing pollution backward to determine likely sources based on weather patterns and shipping activity.
While cleaner fuels and regulations have reduced ship emissions in recent years, Cocker said ships remain a major source of hazardous air pollutants—including toxic metals, fine particulates, and volatile organic compounds—especially in communities near shipping lanes.
Fifteen years ago, Cocker’s team tracked ship pollution inland to Riverside by detecting heavy metals like vanadium and nickel, once common in marine fuel. These markers have mostly disappeared, but emissions remain a public health concern.
“There are still significant gaps in our understanding,” he said. “With diesel engines still powering most of these ships, we need to know more about what’s being released and how it’s affecting people living nearby.”
In addition to advancing public health research, the study could influence policy decisions by agencies such as the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), and international regulators.
“We’re the lead U.S. group conducting direct measurements on active oceangoing vessels,” Cocker said. “This gives us a rare opportunity to scale from a handful of ships to a broader understanding of the fleet’s overall impact.”
The study will also offer research experience for UCR graduate and undergraduate students, who will assist with drone operations, community sampling, and lab analysis.
Research began in April 2025 and will continue through 2027. Data will be collected throughout seasonal weather cycles to ensure a complete understanding of how pollutants spread and settle over time.
“We’ve spent almost two decades looking at emissions from ocean-going vessels,” Cocker said. “Now we’re connecting the dots—between the stack, the plume, and the people.”
In addition to Cocker, UCR scientists working on the study are Donald Collins, a professor and CE-CERT director; Thomas Eckel, a project scientist at CE-CERT; Kent Johnson, a research engineer at CE-CERT; and William Porter, an assistant professor of atmospheric dynamics and modeling in the environmental sciences department in UCR’s College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
The Rose Foundation, which is funding the research, administers funds from legal settlements and consumer protection lawsuits. To date, it has distributed more than $60 million to support clean air, water, and public health initiatives in pollution-impacted communities.
Source: University of California, Riverside