Persuasive Letter - Advocating for Air Pollution Mitigation - Homer Torres

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St. Augustine's University *

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Mechanical_engineering

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Apr 26, 2024

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docx

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Dear Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, To whom it may concern, I hope this letter finds you well. Further efforts toward the mitigation of exposure to air pollution in affordable housing must be addressed. Environmental justice is a term that has consistently gained notoriety because of the unequal environmental burdens in lower income communities(Dr. Bullard 2021). For example, the Healthy Places Index percentile of the South Figueroa Corridor (8.537) are notably worse than those of wealthier communities such as Beverly Hills (73.61) (California Healthy Places Index) . The South Figueroa Corridor’s proximity to large sports stadiums and the 110 freeway contributes to the air quality because of the large amount of vehicle traffic. The Rise Apartments, which are an affordable housing location, sits between these two large vectors of vehicular transit. High concentrations of air pollutants contribute to a steady increase in ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease. Proper forms of mitigation must be employed in order to address these inconsistencies that the residents of Rise Apartments must endure. Measures such as using filters for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning that remove 90% of particulate matter in the 1-3microm range and planting additional trees on streets can go a long way to assist in correcting this environmental injustice. The Banc of California soccer stadium, home to the Los Angeles FC, and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, home football stadium for USC, introduce large amounts of vehicle traffic into the area of the Rise Apartments and inevitably higher amounts of pollutants. The 110 freeway that runs directly behind the Rise Apartments also incorporate large amounts of exhaust from running cars traversing the freeway. These three sources of particulate matter are increasing the air pollution present in the area, and the residents of Rise Apartments are subject to suffer the potential debilitating health problems as a result. At values of 25 microg/m 3 ischemic heart disease rise to a risk ratio of 1.35 from a baseline risk ratio of 1. Ischemic heart disease consists of heart problems caused by narrowed heart arteries and are among the respiratory and cardiovascular diseases that have increased risk when associated with air pollution. Cerebrovascular disease, which refers to conditions that affect blood flow and blood vessels in the brain, rises to a risk ratio of 1.30 at 25 microg/m 3 (Wang B 2020). These are only two of many diseases associated with increased risk in correlation with air pollution. The residents at Rise Apartments are at a risk because of their increased exposure to air pollutants in regards to their proximity to the neighboring stadiums and 110 freeway. Incorporating filters used in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning that remove 90% of particles in the 1-3 microm range can greatly mitigate the air particulate exposure. Planting additional trees in the vicinity of Rise Apartments can also mitigate the air pollutants present since trees continually filter out these pollutants. These two mitigation methods can go a long way in aiding the residents of Rise Apartments and lessen the health risks associated with high concentrations of air pollutants.
References California Healthy Places Index Map . (n.d.). Map.healthyplacesindex.org. https://map.healthyplacesindex.org/ Dr. Robert Bullard, the “father of environmental justice,” is watching the movement grow up . (2021, March 23). Grist. https://grist.org/article/robert-bullard-environmental-justice-2020-biden-race/ Data taken from graphs from: Wang B, Eum KD, Kazemiparkouhi F, et al. The impact of long-term PM2.5 exposure on specific causes of death: exposure-response curves and effect modification among 53 million U.S. Medicare beneficiaries. Environ Health. 2020;19(1):20. Published 2020 Feb 17. doi:10.1186/s12940-020-00575-0. Licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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