“We are focusing on indoor air quality because there is not much we can do about outdoor ambient air quality,” Estrada said.

 Common household air pollutants include combustion products such as tobacco smoke, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. Biological contaminants that are often found in homes are mold, dust mites, pollen, bacteria and viruses. Familiar chemical contaminants are pesticides, asbestos and lead. VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are a group of chemicals that evaporate into the air at room temperature and are a major cause of indoor air pollution. VOCs are found in many products, including paints, fuels, and cleaning products.

Estrada suggested using good ventilation when cleaning small areas as aromatic hydrocarbons can pose fleeting as well as long-term health risks. Children with developing lungs are a lot more susceptible to it.

“Asthma affects almost 12% of people living in Tribal communities, nearly double the national average of 7%,” she said. “Managing triggers is important for Tribal communities who are disproportionately affected by asthma.”

Estrada broke down how different pollutants can be found in different rooms within a house due to their needed source. Bedrooms with pillows, blankets, carpets, upholstered furniture and stuffed toys can easily harbor biological contaminants, while damp surfaces in bathrooms can be prone to mold.

Some of the health effects of indoor pollution are respiratory problems, allergic reactions, eye irritation, headaches, nausea and even some forms of cancer that can develop as a result of environmental factors. Many health conditions can be attributed to pollutants, which is why it is important to be protected from exposure as much as possible.

Ways to reduce indoor air pollution include avoiding smoking indoors, dusting and vacuuming regularly and properly adjusting and maintaining combustion appliances to control the sources.

Ventilation can be improved by opening windows and doors, operating window fans or air conditioning and using exhaust fans. During times of outdoor air pollution, it is recommended to close windows and doors and use air cleaners and filtration systems to maximize effectiveness.

Estrada explained that effectiveness depends on how well it collects pollutants from indoor air (percentage efficiency rate) and how much air it draws through the filtering element (cubic feet per minute). She added that under ideal conditions, air cleaners can provide up to 90% reduction in indoor air pollution.

To help the talking circle participants get a head start on improving their home’s air quality, she led a do-it-yourself air purifier activity. The project involved attaching a square air filter to the back of a portable box fan so that it would instantly filter indoor air when the fan is turned on. Allowing it to be taken to various rooms within the house increases its ability to filter the air in the most offensive rooms, whether it be in the kitchen while cooking or in the living room while the fireplace is going.

“A typical 20-inch box fan can move about 1,500 to 2,000 cubic feet of air per minute depending on the model and speed settings,” Estrada explained. “In one hour, it would move 90,000 cubic feet. Using it in smaller settings of 300-1,000 sq. ft. is more realistic and more beneficial.”

Estrada began working at STED several months ago. A graduate of UC, Davis with a degree in Environmental Science focusing on Natural Resource Management, she previously worked for an air quality regulatory agency in Northern California. She is excited to bring her knowledge to Soboba to expand the air quality monitoring program.

“I am interested in reducing major smoke event impacts to the community through education, monitoring and fuels management,” Estrada said. “Compared to positions I’ve had in the past, being an Environmental Specialist for Soboba has made me realize just how interconnected major environmental threats are, especially in Indian Country where the resources to address them aren’t always readily available. For example, the way our changing climate influences the amount of rain we get in a year, which then influences the health of native vegetation, which affects the stability of our hillsides and streambeds, which comes back to affect local air quality, which I know in the long term, contributes to climate change. It’s a very real-world application of the positive feedback loop I learned about in school, and it requires us as staff to be both creative and persistent in addressing these issues in the interest of preserving the natural resources of the Reservation.”

She also introduced participants to an app that tracks fires and wind conditions to help residents see if they can expect to be impacted by smoke from wildfires, no matter their location. For more information, https://app.watchduty.org.

Tribal member Rosemary Morillo said this discussion from STED was important to Soboba residents because with climate change the air isn’t as clean as it used to be.

“A growth in population means more homes and vehicles,” she said. “These days, there are just too many people; that’s the cause of the poor air quality.”

She recalled that in the 1960s when there were only about 200 people living on the Soboba Reservation, their wells produced the best drinking water in the area, and they enjoyed clean air. These days, the weather is drier and there isn’t a rainy season like there used to be in the past.

Environmental Assistant Christine Rodriguez recently visited the Soboba Tribal Preschool to teach the youngest Tribal members about air quality. She said that for the children, her presentation was geared towards showing them that different colored flags represent different levels of air pollution from good (green) to hazardous (maroon). Using this system, the children can see the flag color upon entering the building each morning where it is posted on the front lobby’s wall.

Utilizing the publication from the United States Environmental Protection Agency titled, “Why is Coco Red?” Rodriguez was able to engage the children with a story and follow-up coloring activity about how a chameleon named Coco and his friends learn about wildfire smoke and how it can affect air quality and health.

“Them being so young, I think it was just more fun for them to hear the story, color, and ask questions,” Rodriguez said. “The main point was to introduce them to the Air Quality Index and learn the colors, so hopefully as we expand our education on the topic, they will continue seeing it as they go through school and can help teach others about it. Youth are the future, and they will soon be the ones who will be educating others.”

 Having the flags prominently displayed will help parents and teachers gain insight and help them decide whether to let the children play outside when it’s nice or keep them inside during bad air quality events. The main goal of this program is to bring awareness to daily levels of air pollution so people can make informed decisions. Data collected from sensors positioned throughout the Reservation provides the AQI levels that are posted on the https://sobobaair.com/data/aqi website.

Weather stations have been installed at three key locations and provide detailed information at any given time of day as well as future forecasting. This is just another way that the Soboba Tribal Environmental Department is keeping Tribal members informed and updated on issues that affect their homeland. Morillo said she would like to see STED host future conversations about off-road recreational vehicles that cause erosion to the Reservation’s hills.

For more information, https://epa.soboba-nsn.gov.

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The Climate Club Inc. was founded in March 2022 in the interest of bridging the gap between the science community and the general public. During the COVID-19 pandemic, The Climate Club (TCC) founder, a former student at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, noticed an increase in the spread of misinformation as well as public confusion about where and how to access reliable science. In response to this, they sought to create a platform that prioritizes accurate and accessible public health information.

In this way, The Climate Club is the first organization of its kind to actively engage students and young professionals in writing about current topics pertaining to climate, sustainability, and environmental health and providing reliable science to the general public. 

Since its inception, The Climate Club (TCC) has seen significant growth in its presence on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Given the group’s focus on simplifying and personalizing scientific information, articles written remotely by TCC members help connect individuals to worldwide climate change realities. Readers have praised TCC content as being “brilliantly articulated” and as taking “amazing actions [toward] climate and environmental protection.”

Founder and Director Zhiru Wang anticipates endless possibilities for the organization: “While topics regarding climate, sustainability, and environmental health can be complex, The Climate Club believes in young scholars and provides them with a platform to become the next generation’s science communicators.”

The Climate Club’s current reach stems from the development of peer-reviewed articles published on their website and shared through social media networks. The team is also working to provide college campuses across the nation with the opportunity to start their own The Climate Club campus chapters.

“Effective science communication requires constant effort from scientists, educators, policymakers, and, just as importantly, students,” said Wang. “Encouraging university students to share scientific findings with an array of audiences may redefine the relationship between the science community and the general public, thus affecting how everyone understands the role science plays in our broader communities.”

Given the scientific and political climate of the past couple years, people need to know that the information they’re receiving is reliable. More importantly, they need to be able to understand it in order to apply it to their personal experiences. 

“The Climate Club is a place people can turn to learn about and absorb meaningful science communication,” said Wang. 

Staff writer Sissi Sun concurs: “It’s a beautiful journey of peer-to-peer learning.”

To learn more about the organization and its mission, visit their website here. For queries, email the team at contact@theclimateclub.com

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

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The Climate Club Inc. was founded in March 2022 in the interest of bridging the gap between the science community and the general public. During the COVID-19 pandemic, The Climate Club (TCC) founder, a former student at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, noticed an increase in the spread of misinformation as well as public confusion about where and how to access reliable science. In response to this, they sought to create a platform that prioritizes accurate and accessible public health information.

In this way, The Climate Club is the first organization of its kind to actively engage students and young professionals in writing about current topics pertaining to climate, sustainability, and environmental health and providing reliable science to the general public. 

Since its inception, The Climate Club (TCC) has seen significant growth in its presence on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Given the group’s focus on simplifying and personalizing scientific information, articles written remotely by TCC members help connect individuals to worldwide climate change realities. Readers have praised TCC content as being “brilliantly articulated” and as taking “amazing actions [toward] climate and environmental protection.”

Founder and Director Zhiru Wang anticipates endless possibilities for the organization: “While topics regarding climate, sustainability, and environmental health can be complex, The Climate Club believes in young scholars and provides them with a platform to become the next generation’s science communicators.”

The Climate Club’s current reach stems from the development of peer-reviewed articles published on their website and shared through social media networks. The team is also working to provide college campuses across the nation with the opportunity to start their own The Climate Club campus chapters.

“Effective science communication requires constant effort from scientists, educators, policymakers, and, just as importantly, students,” said Wang. “Encouraging university students to share scientific findings with an array of audiences may redefine the relationship between the science community and the general public, thus affecting how everyone understands the role science plays in our broader communities.”

Given the scientific and political climate of the past couple years, people need to know that the information they’re receiving is reliable. More importantly, they need to be able to understand it in order to apply it to their personal experiences. 

“The Climate Club is a place people can turn to learn about and absorb meaningful science communication,” said Wang. 

Staff writer Sissi Sun concurs: “It’s a beautiful journey of peer-to-peer learning.”

To learn more about the organization and its mission, visit their website here. For queries, email the team at contact@theclimateclub.com

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

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As the saying goes: beauty is only skin deep. Yet the way beauty is defined often inflicts damage that cuts deeper. In her research, Ami Zota, an incoming faculty member in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, has exposed the hidden risks of chemicals used in beauty products and documented their disproportionate harms among women of color.

Beyond a simple account of environmental risk factors, Zota, who will join the Columbia Mailman faculty in June, has widened her scientific lens to account for the roles played by social forces and societal injustices in shaping exposures. Over the last decade, she has shared her insights on these injustices with community groups and policymakers to change how consumer products are used and regulated.

Zota’s research on beauty products and intimate care products uncovered high levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the bodies of the women who use them—especially Black and Latinx women. Uniquely, her research linked heavy use of these products to racist attitudes and policies around personal appearance—for example, workplace rules prohibiting dreadlocks. “Most of how we think of the use of these products is individualized, and we don’t typically think about the social context and structural factors that drive how we define beauty,” she says. “In fact, environmental exposures are determined by upstream factors like structural racism.”

In 2019, she was invited to testify about her findings to California policymakers as they considered new regulations on beauty and personal care products. Passed in 2020, the Toxic Free Cosmetics Act bans the use of 24 hazardous ingredients in these products. Just last week, she testified to Washington State legislators who are proposing a similar bill in their state. California and New York have also passed laws banning discrimination based on hairstyle and texture.

Zota, who is currently an associate professor at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, traces her interest in environmental justice to a semester she spent in Madagascar during her undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “I saw how community health and wellbeing were tied to ecological health. Poverty was a threat to the natural world.” She went on to earn an MPH and ScD in environmental health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and completed post-docs at the Silent Spring Institute and UCSF.

Her research on phthalates and other environmental health risks has attracted considerable media attention. Journalists regularly seek out her insights, knowing her reputation as an environmental health expert who uses clear language. She also brings diversity to the usual roster of voices. “As a woman of color, I offer a different perspective in a field that is still largely composed of older white men,” says the professor, whose parents were both born in rural India. “But I came to realize I don’t want to be alone in that role.”

It was that realization that led her to create Agents of Change in Environmental Justice, a leadership training program for early-career environmental health scientists from systematically marginalized backgrounds. Launched in 2019, the program emphasizes research translation, science communication, and public engagement around topics in environmental justice. “We need new solutions. Business as usual is not going to help us with monumental challenges like climate change,” Zota says. “These younger scientists have a lot of ideas that can help us. I want them to become the face of this field.”

So far, four Columbia Mailman trainees (past and present) have participated as fellows in the nine-month program. Ashley Gripper, ‘17 MPH, now a PhD student at Harvard, wrote a personal essay on Black farming that was shared widely on social media and even covered by NPR. An Agents of Change podcast features the views of fellows and invited guests, including a forthcoming episode with Columbia Mailman Professor Diana Hernandez, whose work focuses on communities of color in New York City.

Zota’s Columbia Mailman connections go further. Over the last two years, she has partnered with WeACT, a Harlem-based environmental justice group long affiliated with Columbia, on community-driven research and helped to educate their members about harmful environmental chemicals in the beauty industry. Andrea Baccarelli, chair of Environmental Health Sciences, is a collaborator; he is a co-investigator on her NIH grant focused on understanding epigenetic regulation of uterine fibroids, a gynecologic disorder that disproportionately impacts Black women. He also co-authored two papers on the links between phthalates and uterine fibroids. Last summer, Zota was one of the instructors in a Columbia Mailman/Harvard boot camp on environmental justice. 

“Columbia is a perfect fit,” she says. “My vision is to advance environmental justice and health equity through science, training the next generation, communication, and advocacy. I’m able to build on all of these at Mailman. So much is possible.”

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RIVERSIDE (CNS) – The Board of Supervisors is slated tomorrow to consider increasing fees charged by the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health for permits to sell food in markets, operate community water systems, store waste and conduct other activities that require the county’s stamp of approval, but many fees are expected to remain frozen for the
benefit of businesses hard-hit by the coronavirus emergency.

The board will take up Environmental Health Director Keith Jones’ request for hikes to raise permit fees by 3%, approximating an increase in the region’s consumer price index last year.
“The new … fees will produce sufficient revenue to support the proposed costs of providing services in the upcoming fiscal year for which (the) required fees are being charged,” Jones said in a statement posted to the board’s policy agenda.

“Businesses will be moderately impacted by increased fees for food market permits, plan checks, solid waste and hazardous material-related activities, septic tank and water well permits,” he said. “Every effort has been made to minimize impacts on industries which are suffering the economic effects due to COVID-19.”

A county ordinance passed in 2014 authorizes the department to modify fees to keep up with inflation.

Environmental health officials anticipate the agency will be saddled with heftier expenses in 2020-21, due mainly to greater internal service charges, as well as higher labor costs stemming from union contracts, pension obligations, insurance payments and lease outlays connected to five facilities.

The fee hikes will net about $250,000 in additional revenue.

Under the revised fee schedule, obtaining a permit to operate a 300- square-foot open air or closed market selling packaged goods would cost $246 annually, compared to $239 now; a mobile food commissary permit would increase from $606 to $624; a septic tank truck permit would g ofrom $347 to $357; a community water system operating permit would increase from $573 to $590, with up to two dozen connections, and from $1,142 to $1,176 with up to 200; and a permit to repair or modify an underground storage tank would go from $882 to
$908.

The department is proposing to freeze more fees than it seeks to increase, waiving hikes on body art facilities, micro-enterprise home kitchen operations, veterinary clinics medical waste generating facilities, brick-and- mortar restaurants and vending machine operators.

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