User:DamTed/sandbox

West Oakland, California
Located in the East San Francisco Bay, the neighborhood of West Oakland is home to mainly low-income, African American and Latino residents who are exposed to a disproportionate amount of airborne toxins, as compared to the rest of the surrounding Alameda County. West Oakland’s close proximity to highways and the Port of Oakland leave residents highly exposed to pollutants caused by moving and stationary sources of diesel pollution, thus leaving them at higher risk for health complications such as asthma and even shorter life expectancy than surrounding neighborhoods averages.

High emissions of toxic chemicals and airborne particulate matter in West Oakland that cause health issues are due to diesel fuels used for transportation in the Port of Oakland and surrounding highways. Traffic and transportation related air pollutants include carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, black carbon, and diesel particulate matter. Residents are more exposed to harmful pollutants compared to other areas of the Bay Area and Oakland and therefore more at risk for harmful health effects. Compared to the State of California, West Oakland produces 90 times more diesel emission particulates per square mile per day. These pollutants have detrimental health effects such as asthma and reduced life expectancy while putting children at higher susceptibility for health complications.

Inequitable economic, residential, and environmental conditions in this low-income community of color leave residents of West Oakland with poor and inequitable health outcomes. African-American and Latino children of 10-18 years in West Oakland are more susceptible to onset lung defects such as asthma. According to Alameda County Vital Statistics, an African American child born in West Oakland is expected to live 14 fewer years than a white child born in the more wealthy Oakland Hills. Children 5 and under in west Oakland visit the emergency room for asthma three times more often than children in the county as a whole.

There are multiple efforts and strategies to spur legislation for equitable environmental conditions in low-income communities. There are many environmental justice groups and organizations in the Bay Area that encourage community participation in pursuing environmental justice. For example, data is collected by a Community-based participatory research (CBPR) and collaborated with West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP) in order to find effective and accurate findings to prove injustice and eventually spur reform in environmental policy. These research efforts can be used to document and communicate trends in air quality in West Oakland to policy makers. Effectiveness of efforts by these groups are multiplied by and increasing availability of environmental poverty lawyers who empower legislation in the legal system.