Environmental Justice for Children’s Sake Particulate Matter Exposure Among Elementary School Aged Children in Los Angeles County Prepared by: Danielle Fasse

Particulate Matter What is particulate matter? Most adversely affects children Not tracked near highways Sources: http://www.epa.gov/pm/; http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/fasthma.asp; http://dn.engr.ucdavis.edu/images/AQMit-Report5.pdf Particulate matter is a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets, including dust, soot, sulfate aersol and diesel exhaust particles “which are suspended as tiny particles in the air.” The EPA is concerned with particulate matter smaller than 10 micrometers, because those particulates are most likely to be inhaled and get deep into the lungs and even blood stream, causing adverse health effects. As a result, decreased lung function, aggrevated asthma, and premature deaths for people with heart disease are among the various outcomes of increased particulate matter exposure. Particulate matter exposure also has a large effect on children, who are a more vulnerable population. Obviously, highways are one such area where concentration of particulate matter is high, due to car exhaust. A study conducted in 2002 found that particulate matter concentrations near the 405 freeway in Los Angeles were 25 times higher than background ambient concentrations. For this reason, the California Air Resources Board recommended that new schools be built more than 500 feet away from major highways in an attempt to mitigate particulate matter exposure for the vulnerable population of children. Despite the recognition that particulate matter exposure is extremely concentrated by highways, the EPA is still not tracking particulate matter exposure on major highways. This has brought about a law suit from Southern-California environmental justice groups, because most of the populations around highways are of color and/or are impoverished. Because particulate matter exposure is concentrated around highways, and particulate matter most adversely affects children, I have mapped Los Angeles County elementary schools to determine how many are near major freeways.

As I mentioned, I will be focusing on Los Angeles county for this project. Prepared by: Danielle Fasse

I decided to focus on the major highways in Los Angeles County, where the particulate matter exposure is the worst. I have 23 highways on this map, and labeled a few such a 5 and 405 for reference. The major highways were derived from a map of all of the highways in Los Angeles county, which is shown in the inset map at the top right corner. Major Highways shapefile was derived by querying FCC= A15 from LA_streets shapefile .

This map shows the elementary schools in LA County This map shows the elementary schools in LA County. There are 1,210 elementary schools within the county.

As I mentioned, the California Air Resources board suggested schools be 500 feet from a major highway, so as to reduce particulate matter exposure of young children, who spend a majority of their time in school. This map shows a buffer created around each of the highways of 500 feet.

This map is zoomed in to demonstrate which elementary schools fall within the 500 foot buffer around the major highways. The largest green circles, are the elementary schools that are within the 500 buffer, meaning the school is less than 500 feet away from a major highway. As the circles get smaller, the further away the school is from the major highway buffer. For example, the second largest circle is a school between .01feet to 200 feet away from the buffer, or in other words, the second largest circle represents a school 500.01 feet to 700 feet away from a major highway.

In order to focus on the schools that are within the 500 foot buffer, I have removed all other schools. There are 41 schools in Los Angeles county that are less than 500 feet away from a major highway. This is approximately 3.4% of elementary schools in Los Angeles. While this might not sound like a large number, the next slide demonstrates that this is a large environmental justice issue.

I have mapped the median income of the census tracts in los angles county. The darkest color purple are the census tracts with the lowest median income for a household of 4, and the lightest purple are the census tracts with the highest median income for a household of four. The darkest purple are those families living below the poverty line in 2010, making under 22, 050 a year for a family of four. The next lighter purple are those making from above the poverty line to 50,000 and so on. As is visible in this map, the majority of schools that are less than 500 feet from a major highway are contained in a census tract where the median income is lower.

This one area, approximately 16miles in diameter, is concentrated with 26 schools. Second darkest: 21 schools are in the poverty line to 50,000 range, 4 schools are in the 80,00-110,000 range, and one school is in the 110,000-240,000 range. Of the schools not shown on this concentration, 6 were in the 80-110,000, 2 in 50-80,000, 4 in the 22,350 to 50,000 and 3 under the poverty line. 28 of the 41 schools were in census tracts were the median income was below 50,000 for a family of four, a little over 200% of the poverty line.

Policy Consequences Particulate Matter by major highways must be measured and regulated. Children from poorer neighborhoods have greater exposure to Particulate Matter due to the location of their local elementary schools, than do children from more affluent neighborhoods.

Skills Used Inset Map Point Graduated Symbol Attribute Sub-Sets Selections Buffering Geoprocessing Geocoding