I gave this talk in October 2021 to Santa Barbara Healthcare Workers for Racial Justice. I cover the health impact of air pollution, provide an example of redlining poor air quality in my own hometown of Portland, Oregon, and provide some recommendations for what can be done to help ensure clean air for all.
For some reason, the video ratio became squashed- just click on it to play and change to “Full Screen” or you can just go to You Tube to watch it.
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I gave this talk after working an overnight in the ICU the night before, so apologies if I seem to have wordfinding difficulties or pressured speech!
A few notes/clarifications:
In the discussion, I reference asthma rates being low in Mexican kids. This data is somewhat challenging to obtain, and there may be under diagnosis, but what I was referring to is a relatively lower rate in Mexican-born individuals in the US compared to some other Hispanic groups, and a rate of airways disease that then increases with the next generation in US. See the posts or listen to the podcast episodes with Drs. Holguin, Celedón, and Díaz for more information on this nuance.
I also refer to Harriet Washington’s “A Terrible Thing to Waste” and the figure about lead and violence- I mention lead in the air, but to be clear, the figure in the book refers to overall lead in the community, including that from time of leaded gasoline.
TLDR= Don't Light Things on Fire and Breathe them into your Lungs
References
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- American Lung Association. “Road to Clean Air.” 2020.
- Andersen ZJ et al. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Long-Term Exposure to Traffic-related Air Pollution: A Cohort Study. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2011: 183: 455-461.
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- Mapping inequality
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