Press Telegram -- Martha Cota -- Member of LBACA "Mayor Foster Took a Wrong Turn on the Road to Clean Air" 

Click here to read "When dirty air gets personal"  By Laura Rodriguez -- September 2007.  Click here for more articles on "Is world trade a poison apple"

Danger At Sea: Ships Draw Fire For Rising Role In Air Pollution --- As Global Trade Grows, So Does the Spewing Of Noxious Emissions
 

   The Trade, Health & Environment Impact Project, also referred to as THE Impact Project, is a community-academic partnership focused on reducing the impacts of international trade on health and community life.  Funded by The California Endowment, THE Impact Project began its formal collaboration in the spring of 2006; however, many of the partners have been working together on goods movement-related issues in Southern California for years. .  Click to for more information

THE Impact Project website will serve as a network for communities and researchers alike to find useful news links, resources, and information about our upcoming "Moving Forward" Conference.

Harboring Pollution: The Dirty Truth about U. S. Ports, March 2004 Click to read article.
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Toxic Air: How the Ports Contribute to Pollution in the L.A. Basin.  Click to read article.

Emission Reduction Plan for Ports and Goods Movement in California.  Click to read article.

Tier 2 Study of Vehicle Emissions.  Click to read Report.

Outdoor Air Pollution

While air pollution has long been accepted as an asthma trigger, recent research shows that it is likely to be involved in the causation of asthma, demonstrating that the health impacts of outdoor air pollution for children living in Long Beach and its surrounding communities are real. Long Beach is part of the Southern California Air Basin, which, despite significant improvements, remains in violation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard specified by the Clean Air Act (CAA).  The American Lung Association’s State of the Air, 2006 which provides a county-level report card on the two most pervasive air pollutants, ozone (smog) and particle pollution (soot), listed Los Angeles-Long Beach as the place in the United States with the highest number of days with high air pollution, giving it a grade F.  Because of the universal impact that air pollution has on children’s health in Long Beach, LBACA works to prevent pollution from the largest sources in our region—the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the “goods movement system.”

Long Beach and the surrounding communities are particularly affected by the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and the related goods movement activity. These neighborhoods lie within the wind corridor most affected by harbor, industry, freeway and refinery pollutants and the 710 freeway runs through the heart of these neighborhoods carrying more than 47,000 truck trips each weekday to and from the third largest port complex in the world.

For more information about port pollution and their impacts please see:

Natural Resources Defense Council and Coalition for Clean Air. Harboring Pollution: The Dirty Truth about U.S. Ports, March 2004

Long Beach Press Telegram 8-part series entitled: “Toxic Air: How the Ports Contribute to Pollution in the L.A. Basin

Health Impacts of Goods Movement

According to the University of Southern California’s Children’s Health Study, which was conducted over 10 years in 12 communities with 6,000 children in southern California, Long Beach had the highest levels of elemental carbon, a marker for diesel exhaust, of all 12 communities. Diesel exposure is associated with numerous immune system responses in humans and animals culminating in increased allergic inflammatory responses and suppression of infection fighting ability. Long Beach also had the third highest levels of nitrogen dioxide. Not only has a relationship been established between nitrogen dioxide exposure, respiratory tract symptoms and asthma exacerbation, but exposure to NO2 has also been found to enhance allergic responses. Long Beach had the fifth highest PM 2.5 exposure. Elevated levels of both ozone and particulate matter have been shown to increase missed school days and hospitalization rates. And finally, six percent of children tested in Long Beach have less than 80% of their normal lung function, compared to no children with impaired lung function in less polluted communities. Clinically significant lung function deficits predict future health problems and even premature death.

The California Air Resource Board (CARB) conducted a thorough analysis of the health and financial impacts of the goods movement operations throughout the state of California. In their Emission Reduction Plan, the following health impacts were attributed to Ports and Goods Movement in California:

• 2400 premature deaths annually, mostly from particulate pollution,

• 2000 hospital admissions (respiratory causes),

• 830 hospital admissions (cardiovascular causes),

• 62,000 Asthma and Other Respiratory Symptoms,

• 360,000 Lost Work Days, and

• 1,100,000 School Absence Days.

The 710 “Story”

LBACA’s involvement in Outdoor Air Pollution policy work started when community members became aware of a local freeway expansion project, the I-710, which runs through the heart of the community, was proposed.

LBACA has been working with the Community Partners Council (CPC), a group of community residents from downtown Long Beach and representatives from community organizations, agencies and local government, to bring the community’s voice to the I-710 expansion debate. In 2001, the I-710 Oversight Policy Committee (OPC) undertook the task of investigating the possibility of “improving” the 710 freeway. Two years later, this committee had narrowed the field to 5 possible alternatives and would make their final decision on a locally preferred alternative within months, despite very little input from the community and no input from the neighborhoods to be the most impacted by the elimination of homes, churches, parks, and schools and increased air pollution. The “health voice” was noticeably absent from the debate as well, with little discussion of the potential health effects of increased diesel truck traffic on the 710. One goal of the freeway expansion is to accommodate the anticipated three-fold increase in cargo entering the port by 2020.

Many of the LBACA and CPC members live in the neighborhoods that would be directly impacted by a freeway expansion and have children with asthma. When they attended a meeting hosted by the I-710 OPC they found many obstacles. First, the meeting was held later in the day and ran late into the night. Many of the members found that they had to leave the meeting early so that they could get their children to bed. Many of the members did not have childcare or transportation, so they could not attend the meetings. Many of the meetings were held in locations that were either far away or difficult to get to by foot. Very technical language was used to explain the alternatives, even for an English speaker, and interpretation, when available, was poor. When these obstacles were mentioned to the OPC, no changes were implemented. LBACA and CPC felt that this information had to get to the community so they decided to co-host a community forum in May 2003.

At the LBACA and CPC community forum, there was transportation, childcare, food, and interpretation provided, but most of all, plenty of time to understand the message. There were over 60 persons in attendance. The I-710 committee was invited to present on the 5 alternatives under consideration. Ed Avol from the University of Southern California Occupational and Environmental Health Department at the Keck School of Medicine was also invited to present on the “10-year study on Respiratory Health and Air Pollution.” The LBACA and CPC members have continued to attend I-710 OPC meetings, City of Long Beach 710 Community Advisory Committee meetings and plan strategy sessions of their own to ensure their concerns are heard. Because of their continuous efforts, several new practices have been instituted.

• A 2-tiered Community Advisory Committee was formed by the OPC, on which both LBACA and the CPC had a sitting member

• City of Long Beach Advisory Committee on the I-710 Meetings were held earlier in the day and end at 8:30 pm.

• The Tier I Committee drew up a plan from scratch to “improve” the highway and this plan will eliminate only a handful of homes, will actually grow park space, will not eliminate any schools, and would involve only a ½ mile of double decking. This is not the final plan.

• The Tier 2 Committee met monthly for one year and the final result was a fully vetted community document known as the I-710 Major Corridor Study, Tier 2 Community Advisory Committee: Major Opportunity/Strategy Recommendations and Conditions.

LBACA and CPC as part of a larger coalition of environmental health, community based, environmental justice and legal groups continue to work to encourage the governing bodies to include the recommendations of the Tier 2 report. These include:

1. Air Quality Action Plan: A “near-term” air quality plan designed to improve corridor air quality prior to the start of construction

2. Include community participation corridor wide throughout the project implementation

3. Include a thorough analysis of alternatives to freeway expansion for improvement of throughput, rather to consider alternative forms of goods movement for the trucks clogging the I-710 freeway.
   (See http://www.gatewaycog.org/i710.html for more information about the status of the I-710 freeway project)