Carla Truax
University of Southern California Environmental Health
July 26, 2014
In communities around Southern California this summer and past spring, students have been learning about air pollution and doing their own hands-on monitoring. These areas included Alhambra, Hacienda Heights, Boyle Heights, Lennox, Inglewood, and more. USC Outreach Program coordinator Carla Truax visited several high schools and community organizations to give a presentation on “Air Pollution 101,” USC’s latest scientific research findings, and demonstrate air monitoring equipment for the students. The students then came up with creative monitoring projects of their own.
The most in-depth program was the Environmental Justice Summer Institute (EJSI), a program focused on educating, engaging, and empowering youth to be environmental health leaders in their neighborhoods of Inglewood, Hawthorne, and Lennox. The youth developed hands-on experience with two days of ultrafine particle pollution and noise monitoring at 14 locations around their neighborhoods. The students chose locations for monitoring and mapped them before setting out for their field work. The selected locations included places they live, learn, and hang out, such as parks, schools, and homes. These areas are in the flyover path for jets landing at LAX airport.
The students also wrote about their monitoring experiences:
“As we spent two sessions going around our community measuring pollution, the thought that kept stirring in my mind was that there is not much being done to keep our homes safe. I only wonder how our community will be if we do not take action, so I think people should be more aware of the dangers around them.”
–Vanessa Sanchez
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| Prior to measuring pollution, students mapped healthy and unhealthy spaces in their communities to identify where they wanted to take pollution measurements. |
“While doing the air and noise pollution, I was surprised a few times by the measurement and the locations. I never thought our communities were that polluted by these moving engines. What surprised me more was the bus pollution measurement was quite low. But some locations were heavily polluted and can have a negative effect on people’s health.” –Khanh Nguyen
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| A sound level meter is used to measure the number of decibels from the airplane. |
“My emotion about knowing the air pollution was “surprise!” because I didn’t know that our air was not as clean as it should be. For example the beach has 4,000 pt/cc [number of particles per cubic centimeter] of ultrafine particles on average. I asked myself why doesn’t the city enjoy that kind of healthy air? All the data gathered concerned me about the environment and it made me see that we have a problem.” –Abigail Diaz
[Note: the average levels of ultrafine particles in Lennox and Inglewood was 45,000 pt/cc.]
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| A P-Trak monitor is used to measure the ultrafine particles. |
“My thoughts and emotions weren’t thrilled because I was expecting to get the result that we got because I know the community. The only one I was surprised was at the beach because it was really low. It was 2,000-6,000 (pt/cc).” –Eder Juarez
The Environmental Justice Summer Institute program is a partnership of USC Environmental Health, Asian and Pacific Islander Obesity Prevention Alliance (APIOPA), From Lot to Spot (FLTS), and Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI). Learn more about the institute at the USC Environmental Health blog.
USC Environmental Health gratefully thanks the NIEHS, U.S. EPA, The Kresge Foundation and The California Wellness Foundation for their combined support, which has allowed the Centers’ participation in these efforts to educate youth about air pollution.