Tackling air quality concerns, finding solutions
HEBER — One of the biggest environmental and public health concerns in the Imperial Valley is air quality and the impact it has on the health of its residents, particularly on young children. Due to the heavy community interest, the eighth annual Imperial County Environmental Health Leadership Summit opened with a conversation regarding asthma and the Salton Sea. One of the major focal points during the panel was continuing the efforts on improving public health data to better understand the complexity and prevalence of the health issues and expanding collaboration between agencies and the community.
University of Southern California Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine Jill Johnston spoke about some of the current research happening in the Valley and the health implications regarding the emissive dust coming from the Salton Sea exposed shoreline. She mentioned that the dust and particulate matter can have a detrimental effect on health and can lead to respiratory diseases.
She also acknowledged that on top of that, the dust often has residue of pesticides and heavy metals, which get washed onto the Salton Sea, and those can affect someone’s neurological and cardiovascular health. Johnston touched on the research efforts she’s carrying out at the Salton Sea in partnership with Comite Civico del Valle, which organizes the summit. A USC group of researchers have been collecting air samples at the same locations in which Comite Civico has air monitors in place. As part of the research, the dust samples collected were introduced to healthy mice and Johnston pointed out that initial results show those mice — when exposed to the dust — with inflammation of their lungs.
Imperial County Public Health Department Health Program Coordinator Christina Olson focused her presentation on what the available data can tell health officials regarding asthma prevalence in the region. She said that although the data shows the local rates of asthma are similar to the state’s average, where the numbers become a concern is in the rate of emergency room visits for young children and the number of hospitalizations due to respiratory health issues.
Imperial County has the worst areas in the state of California when it comes to air quality. According to data from the California Department of Public Health, the county has the highest rate of asthma-related emergency services visits in the state for children aged 5-17. While the state has an average of 72.4 emergency visits per 10,000, the rate in the Valley is more than twice that with 163 per 10,000 per year. Olson said when looking into the zip codes of those patients who get hospitalized, a disparity can be seen in which areas they come from, with the majority of them from Brawley, Niland and Westmorland. Paul English from the state’s Department of Public Health asked Olson about the potential of locals who suffer from asthma that are not accounted for in the data because they have either not been diagnosed or get medical treatment in Mexico.
Olsen said local officials are aware of the shortcomings of available data. She noted that in a recent health survey only 50 residents from the north end of the county were interviewed, which led the county to partner with University of California, Los Angeles. To improve the data, the partnership will focus on getting more than 350 residents in the north end to have a better sample size of people whose health can be assessed and establish a baseline for comparison in the future.
Israel Cruz and Esther Bejarano from Comite Civico also touched on the most recent efforts the organization has been engaging in, including their flag program in which they partner with schools to take precautionary actions when air quality is poor. Despite being partnered with 10 schools, Bejarano pointed out that is only a small fraction of the people there are trying to reach and encouraged the audience to talk with their schools to seek options to expand such programs.
“Even if you don’t have asthma yourself, you probably have family members who do and are breathing the same air as you do,” Bejarano said.