SmartAirLA: Tech addressing asthma in Long Beach “asthma alley”
Smog over the Long Beach harbor | Photo: View of Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach from Palos Verdes by NickCPrior, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
🟫 LA Tech4Good has initiated a climate committee to elevate solutions at the tech and climate nexus. We believe that many of these solutions exist right here in LA, and we want to spread the word. With a focus on air quality, this article introduces the work of SmartAirLA to address asthma through data.
by Kelly Poole, Climate Committee lead
Los Angeles air quality dilemma
Unlike other major polluting cities, LA’s unique climate and topographical barriers keep smog trapped in the LA basin, and extensive urbanization and unchecked industrial development have cemented low air quality into the LA experience. For nearly a century, Los Angeles has topped the charts for highest US air pollution. Be it particulate matter or ozone, ever since the first recorded “smog episode” in 1943, severe smog, murky skylines, and rust colored sunsets have plagued the city’s golden reputation. And of course, as climate change progresses, hotter temperatures, wildfires, and drought will further exacerbate LA’s air quality dilemma.
Long Beach Freeway | photo by Alfa117, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Communities adjacent to major pollution sources (like highways, refineries and ports) have the lowest air quality in the country. Those living along the notorious I-710 corridor (often nicknamed “diesel death zone” or “asthma alley”) experience 36% more particulate matter concentrations than the LA County average. The residents of these high pollution neighborhoods have become the face of one of LA’s most startling eco-social justice issues. These community members, who are 77% POC, are truly shouldering the consequences of emissions they are not responsible for.
In Los Angeles County, 25% of Black children have asthma, compared to only 7% of non-Hispanic White children. The health consequences of breathing polluted air are severe and pervasive, often in the form of reduced lung development in children, reduced cognitive performance, and a myriad of pulmonary and cardiovascular problems - and perhaps most notably, asthma. For these children, unhealthy air may mean skipped school days or a trip to the hospital. These consequences are very real opportunity costs for children already facing a multitude of socio-economic challenges.
Enter SmartAirLA
With various initiatives targeting asthma relief, SmartAirLA has just launched Fight Asthma Long Beach - Los Angeles Harbor, a data initiative dedicated to advancing environmental and health equity in the LB-LA Harbor. In partnership with the Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma (LBACA), the initiative includes the Fight Asthma Tracker, a public health education tool that monitors in real-time the environmental conditions associated with asthma hospitalizations and pinpoints pollution hotspots in the Long Beach-Los Angeles Harbor.
Fight Asthma Tracker web application
Residents of port-adjacent communities (think San Pedro, Carson, and North Long Beach) can check the Fight Asthma Tracker to know when and where there is asthma danger in their neighborhood, including the pollution sources. LBACA led a coalition of local community health and environmental organizations that identified the pollution hotspots. A key feature of the tool provides actionable advice for asthma patients to protect themselves from asthma attacks, such as “carry rescue inhaler” or “avoid strenuous outdoor activities near pollution areas” according to the asthma danger levels.
SmartAirLA believes that access to digestible air quality data allows high-risk individuals to avoid their worst-case scenarios, and with COVID-19 now posing additional risks to asthmatics and frontline community members, SmartAirLA’s work is of utmost importance. Furthermore, communities with high pollution rates are experiencing higher COVID-19 death rates - evidence that frontline communities have an urgent need for tools and resources to combat the ever increasing list of health-equity challenges.
“Data can be a force equalizer to empower residents and community leaders to protect their livelihoods and fight for equality” –Ray Cheung, Executive Director of SmartAirLA
Executive Director Ray Cheung and his team have learned many lessons throughout the creation of SmartAirLA’s tech and data resources (you can read some of them here), but the most important lesson of this article is the potential that data and technology have in creating innovative and equitable climate solutions. In tandem with the pillars of community-based solutions, tech and data are proving to be invaluable resources in the fight against climate change.
About the author
Kelly Poole
Kelly Poole is all about climate mitigation. Specifically clean energy, eco-social justice, and urban sustainability. She spent 3 years on University of Colorado Boulder’s Environmental Board advising a multimillion dollar budget, managing the Sustainable CU grant program, and as a liaison between students and administration on campus sustainability issues.
Kelly brings both sharp thinking and optimism to LA Tech4Good as a volunteer and also contributes her time and talents to myCovidMD.
About SmartAirLA
SmartAirLA is a public-private partnership of technology companies and community health organizations to “empower communities in Los Angeles suffering from pollution with technology and data to improve their health and environment”. With a new data initiative, Fight Asthma Long Beach - Los Angeles Harbor, they are working to address the health consequences of low air quality in the most impacted LA neighborhoods.
See also
‘Asthma Alley’: Long Beach ranks worst in U.S. for air quality, by Grayson Schmidt/Cronkite News
Asthma Alley, CA/ Particulate matter endangering children in Los Angeles, by Brittany Lerian, Josue Montenegro, and Pete Treebumrung