By: Angel Rivera
Brianda Castro, Climate Equity and Environmental Justice Associate at the California Central Asthma Collaborative, discussed air quality in the Central Valley and how people can protect themselves and drive change.
Q: Can you explain what it means when people say Bakersfield is a fishbowl and how that impacts our health?
Yeah, so typically when community residents from the central valley refer to Bakersfield as a fish bowl, it’s mostly, like the correlation to us being in the valley and having a lot of the pollution from Northern California, come down to the valley, and then times also from California, mostly during the time of wildfires. So, having both of those migrate into the Central Valley, where we’re sunken in and surrounded by the mountains, creates a fishbowl effect where everything just settles here. And so, that’s when we start to see air quality pollution become really bad.
And then also, we in the Central Valley and here in Bakersfield have a lot of different sources of emissions. So we have, for example, agricultural fields, we have oil and gas, we have dairies and heavy-duty transport, diesel transports, or all of those emissions also contribute to the pollution that’s here in Bakersfield in the Central Valley. So a lot of the time, folks refer to it as just a source of stagnant contamination. And so that’s why, there’s hardly days where we see good air quality.”
Q: How does the air quality index (AQI) exceeding 500 affect people with asthma?
Yeah, so the air quality index, you know, you have your green, which is good, and then you have all the way up to think purple, where it’s really severe. So, when, when it’s red, that’s harmful to residents, especially with asthma, because that means that there’s heavy concentrations of like PM 2.5, and other contaminants that are exacerbators of asthma. So if someone is out, exercising on a poor air quality day, where you’re seeing red or purple. Then they’re breathing in all of those extra contaminants. So they’re more prone to then being affected by an asthma attack.
Q3): Why is Bakersfield/Kern County prone to bad air quality?
Well, I refer to Bakersfield, the Central Valley, as a hot zone and like the perfect storm, for poor air quality due to that fishbowl effect, but also because we are the number one producers of food, and we have a lot of agriculture fields here. And so, when it comes time to harvest season or even, you know, other industries like oil and gas and dairies. We know that not all the time are their processes safe for the community, because they do emit pollutants within those industries. So, not only do we have that fishbowl effect, but we have a hot zone of different industries that also pollute in the Central Valley, which is why we have the worst air quality in the nation. And, we learned that year after year through the American Lung Association’s report. Bakersfield and Delano were always number one for the worst air quality in the nation, for PM 2.5, and we’ve been at non-attainment for years. And we’re typically 2nd or 3rd for ozone, as well.
Q: What are some precautions people can take to protect themselves from bad air quality?
So, to protect themselves from bad air quality. Some of the best practices that we like to educate residents on is to be aware of the resources of what is available right now to help you from getting an asthma attack, and that would be these real-time air quality networks that will alert you when it’s a bad air quality day, for us at Central California Asthma Collaborative, we are administers of the SJVR network and where we have focused putting air monitors that read real-time air quality data and gaps that the EPA and the air districts don’t have their monitors and usually these are rural disadvantage from communities that are right at the front line of those polluting industries.
But then also, you know, be educated on what those polluting sources are, both outside and inside the home. Something that we typically hear from community residents when we hold workshops or community meetings is that a lot of times they feel like they don’t have any refuge. Because when they go outside, it’s bad air pollution, and then they go inside their homes, and they’re often faced with more air, indoor pollution, contamination, which is either through a gas stove or homes that don’t have adequate infrastructure, and are pulling in outside air pollutants inside the home, through things like swamp coolers that don’t have any air filtration system.
So not only being aware of what the outside sources are of pollutants, but also what are the in-home triggers that you might not be aware of, or are aware of, but could potentially take action to be able to mitigate so that you don’t suffer any asthma attacks, both through outside and indoor sources.
Q: If low air quality doesn’t improve, what are some long-term effects this can have for those who have asthma and want to participate in strenuous activities such as sports or working out?
So what we’ve been seeing is rising rates of asthma in children. So we know now through studies that we have conducted that asthma can sometimes be developed through pregnancy, so we’re seeing that those effects already with younger children because, you know, like the mothers are pregnant and they’re breathing in these outside emissions and then that’s affecting the fetus in the womb. So, as far as what they can expect whenever they, you know, they have asthma, and they’re going outdoors doing exercises, is, contaminants definitely exacerbate asthma.
So, we caution people that exercise if it is a bad air quality day because the risk is there for an asthma attack. Through our CARES program, which is our comprehensive, at-home, Comprehensive Asthma Remediation Education program. Where we go inside the home and look for triggers. We also educate folks on how to take medication using a spacer. This helps bring in more of the medication into the lungs. So also being just very aware of the best practices to take your medication, and what practices you can do to get the best effect. We also encourage people to mask up on our bad air quality days. So there are precautions that folks can take if they do suffer from any respiratory illness, but always, again, the number one resource would be just being in the know of what the reality of the situation, even checking the air quality day frequently and just being educated on resources.
Q: You mentioned precautions that people with asthma or any citizen could take if they are doing sports, but is it still recommended for them to participate in training activities?
We don’t recommend it, our SJVR network is based off a school monitoring network, so a lot of our monitors are based within school districts. And once we read a certain level on the air quality index. It won’t be recommended for folks to go outside and do sports. The school will actually use that to keep kids inside and do indoor activities as opposed to being outside and exercising. But there’s different levels of that quality index. So it could be yellow, where you can be outside and do light activity, but take precautions. And of course, if the quality index is red or purple, we don’t want folks who are sensitive to be outside or doing strenuous activities. There is also a message that comes out through the SJV Air app to let them know that it’s safer to stay inside.
Q: With the precaution that you mentioned, are those effective at really protecting you if you were to participate in strenuous activities?
I would say it would depend person by person because some folks do have more severe symptoms than others, or some folks have their asthma under control. Some are more prolonged to asthma attacks. So I would say it’s really a case-by-case basis, but no, there’s nothing really out there.
I think we’ve seen it in the time of COVID, where they were telling everybody to mask up, but they were specifically telling them to wear an N95 mask because a regular mask won’t actually keep the contaminants out from the respiratory system. So, I mean, if we really want to get technical and, you know, ambitious, I would say wear one of those gas masks, right? And then you’ll be fine doing exercises outside because you won’t be breathing in those pollutants. But, yeah, I wouldn’t say there’s anything actually out there that would protect you from getting an asthma attack if you are having more of a severe diagnosis and you’re out there doing sports, breathing in those pollutants.
Q6): What’s something the community should know about bad air quality?
I think the most important thing that the community should know about poor air quality is that, be educated on the source, the contaminants, and the resources. But most importantly, know that you can make a change to help improve the air quality in your community. There are currently local community mission reduction plans that are being created in rural communities. We have the community of Lost Hills developing one, the community of Delanos developing one in other communities across the state.
These local community emissions reduction plans are programs and measures that the community has come up with as a resource to help combat poor air quality in their community. It’s funded through the California Air Resources Board under the community air protection program, and these measures and programs that the community have chosen, and in some cases, having an air purifier in the home, using programs that help folks switch their gas lawnmowers to electric lawnmowers.
Now, those don’t seem like huge things that will clean up the air right away, but if each individual starts switching little by little, it creates that huge domino effect that does cause emission reductions. And so, just know that there are spaces where community members can be involved, and the community does have a lot of power in order to be able to influence decision makers and regulatory agencies to make a change at the local community level.
