This story is reprinted from FresnoState Magazine, as written by Melissa Tav, for the Summer 2017 edition.
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San Joaquin Valley air pollution concentration levels are well above federal clean air standards, which has resulted in unhealthy and polluted air.
For children in the Valley, this can cause a number of issues for their health and well-being. A team of researchers from Fresno State aims to understand and reduce the risks of air pollution exposure to children in the region.
One project focused on transit exposure during pregnancy, looking at the impact of neighborhood assets (bus stops, sidewalks, food outlets) and liabilities (foreclosure rates, density of condemned properties, high-speed surface street traffic) on daily activities and physical movement around the Valley among pregnant women and new mothers.
The study is in partnership with UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Sonoma Technology, Inc. and UC San Francisco-Fresno, and is jointly funded by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Also, over the past two years, about 200 public health students conducted structured social observations in each zip code in Fresno and Clovis. The students collected observations and
photographs exploring how neighborhood features influence transit use and exposure patterns.
This study allowed students to receive hands-on experience with data collection. The data is being analyzed, with results expected in the fall. Dr. John Capitman, Dr. Kara Zografos, Dr. Jaymin Kwon and Emanuel Alcala with the Central Valley Health Policy Institute and the Department of Public Health at Fresno State are leading the research.
All photos courtesy of Cary Edmondson. Read the full story at the LINK.
Fresno State College of Health and Human Services 