 |
 |
|
|
September 2014
|
|
Overview
The quality of the environment directly affects a person’s health status and plays a major role in quality of life and years of healthy life lived. Safe air, land, and water are fundamental to a healthy community environment. An environment free of hazards such as secondhand smoke, carbon monoxide, allergens, lead, and toxic chemicals helps prevent disease and other health problems for all populations.1
|
|
Leading Health Indicators
Leading Health Indicators (LHI) are critical health issues that – if tackled appropriately – will dramatically reduce the leading causes of death and preventable illnesses. The Environmental Quality LHIs are:
|
|
Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going
The Air Quality Index (AQI), which reports daily air quality as a value of 0 to 500, considers values greater than 100 to indicate unhealthy levels of air pollution. Between 2006–2008 and 2009–2011, potential exposure to unhealthy air quality (measured as the number of AQI-weighted people days) decreased 44.0%, exceeding the HP2020 target. However, air quality, as measured by AQI, is highly dependent on local, seasonal, and annual variation in weather.
Between 2005–2008 and 2009–2012, exposure to secondhand smoke among children aged 3 to 11 years decreased 20.9%, from 52.2% to 41.3%, also exceeding the HP2020 target. Exposure to secondhand smoke varied by race and ethnicity, country of birth, income, and health insurance status.
|
|
Who’s Leading the Leading Health Indicators?
Community Air Risk Evaluation (CARE) improves health by identifying sources of air pollution in California's Bay Area
|
 Poor air quality can affect health in many ways, including aggravation of respiratory and cardiovascular disease, cancer, and premature death.2 Diesel particulate matter (DPM), part of the complex mixture that comprises exhaust from diesel engines, is one source of pollution that can negatively impact air quality.3 In California, DPM is identified as a toxic air contaminant based on its potential to cause health problems.4
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District) serves as a regional air pollution control agency, regulating stationary sources of air pollution in the 9 counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2004, the Air District launched the Community Air Risk Evaluation (CARE) program to identify the communities in the region most affected by air pollution and the populations most vulnerable to the health impacts of pollution.
The Air District identified the West Oakland community as one of the most impacted communities in the Bay Area due to its proximity to major freeways, the Port of Oakland, the Union Pacific rail yard, and the former Oakland Army Base. Diesel engines in trucks, marine vessels, and locomotives were the primary sources that contributed to West Oakland residents’ increased exposure to DPM. The Air District worked with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to assess the health impact of air pollution on West Oakland’s 22,000 residents. Through these studies, they found that residents of West Oakland had one of the highest rates of potential cancer risk in the Bay Area.5
|
|
|
|
|
 |
