Project Overview
Air pollution is a known cause of poor respiratory health, and children, the elderly, and people with pre-existing cardiopulmonary disease are at greater risk. Significantly, poorer communities and under-represented minorities live most where air pollution is worst, making this public health issue an environmental justice priority.
From 2022-2024, LPC participated in the Sacramento County Vehicle Emissions Project (VEP), in partnership with Breathe California Sacramento Region.
Approach
LPC developed a Community Wellness Respiratory Survey available in seven languages to understand the impact of air pollution from vehicle emissions on community residents.
Next, we analyzed the survey findings and prepared graphic summaries for the significant number of responses – over 1,200 – collected by community partners across Sacramento County. Individual summaries for VEP’s four Environmental Justice (EJ) neighborhoods: Gardenland, North Highlands, South Sacramento/Vineyard, and West Arden Arcade were made available upon request in Farsi and Spanish.
Methodology
LPC, in order to understand the impact of air pollution from vehicle emissions, worked in collaboration with the entire coalition to develop a Community Respiratory Wellness Survey which posed questions regarding the respondent household’s concerns or problems with pollution from cars, trucks, or motorcycles (vehicle emissions), as well as any respiratory health symptoms. The survey was translated by community-based organizations and partners.
LPC organized and analyzed findings for the entire County (all valid respondents), as well as identified respondents who reported living in one of the EJ communities.
While LPC did a deep dive into the survey findings, the analysis highlighted specific locations where vehicles were seen idling, respondents could smell vehicle odors, and the related health impacts which included:
- Experiencing specific physical symptoms (e.g., headache, throat irritation, difficulty breathing, nausea, etc.)
- Seeing or smelling black dust or soot inside and outside the home
- Having to visit a clinic or doctor’s office
- Needing to make an emergency room visit
Additionally, the data visualizations illustrated respondent knowledge levels about air pollution, along with measurements of the emotional impact of feeling concerned about the environment. These findings supported air quality measurements collected by a team of students from the Environmental Studies department at Sacramento State.
Please continue educating the community on air quality and pollution, the more we know – the more the community can do to fix issues.
– Survey Respondent, South Sacramento/Vineyard
Key Findings
Accessibility for multiple community members was a hallmark of this broad-reaching survey, and LPC reported on the project data with simple yet powerful graphics as well as summaries in required languages.
The collaborative successfully secured additional funding to extend the initiative beyond its planned end date. VEP partners and CBOs integrated the Community Respiratory Wellness Survey findings in community education sessions, Town Halls, and Community Forums to demonstrate the need for new policies, programs, and resources to improve the overall community well-being and engage residents to advocate on behalf of their communities.
The Sacramento State team collected air quality for much longer than originally scheduled, providing them with an entire year of seasonal data to analyze. This model was meant to inform and support subsequent mitigation efforts and serve as a template for similar community-driven efforts in other California cities.
The air quality monitoring data gathered will be utilized to build a geographic and algorithmic model to assess the relationships between air quality and respiratory health and its contributing causes in these neighborhoods.
