Latest news with #environmentaljustice
CBS News
5 days ago
- Health
- CBS News
Asthma sufferers could be at greater risk if Trump cuts health program
Esther Bejarano's son was 11 months old when asthma landed him in the hospital. She didn't know what had triggered his symptoms — neither she nor her husband had asthma — but she suspected it was the pesticides sprayed on the agricultural fields near her family's home. Pesticides are a known contributor to asthma and are commonly used where Bejarano lives in California's Imperial Valley, a landlocked region that straddles two counties on the U.S.-Mexico border and is one of the main producers of the nation's winter crops. It also has some of the worst air pollution in the nation and one of the highest rates of childhood asthma emergency room visits in the state, according to data collected by the California Department of Public Health. Bejarano has since learned to manage her now-19-year-old son's asthma and works at Comite Civico del Valle, a local rights organization focused on environmental justice in the Imperial Valley. The organization trains health care workers to educate patients on proper asthma management, enabling them to avoid hospitalization and eliminate triggers at home. The course is so popular that there's a waiting list, Bejarano said. But the group's Asthma Management Academy program and similar initiatives nationwide face extinction with the Trump administration's mass layoffs, grant cancellations, and proposed budget cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency. Asthma experts fear the cumulative impact of the reductions could result in more ER visits and deaths, particularly for children and people in low-income communities — populations disproportionately vulnerable to the disease. "Asthma is a preventive condition," Bejarano said. "No one should die of asthma." Asthma can block airways, making it hard to breathe, and in severe cases can cause death if not treated quickly. Nearly 28 million people in the U.S. have asthma, and about 10 people still die every day from the disease, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. In May, the White House released a budget proposal that would permanently shutter the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Asthma Control Program, which was already gutted by federal health department layoffs in April. It's unclear whether Congress will approve the closure. Last year, the program allotted $33.5 million to state-administered initiatives in 27 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C., to help communities with asthma education. The funding is distributed in four-year grant cycles, during which the programs receive up to $725,000 each annually. Comite Civico del Valle's academy in Southern California, a clinician workshop in Houston, and asthma medical management training in Allentown, Pennsylvania — ranked the most challenging U.S. city to live in with asthma — are among the programs largely surviving on these grants. The first year of the current grant cycle ends Aug. 31, and it's unknown whether funding will continue beyond then. Data suggests that the CDC's National Asthma Control Program has had a significant impact. The agency's own research has shown that the program saves $71 in health care costs for every $1 invested. And the asthma death rate decreased 44% between the 1999 launch of the program and 2021, according to the American Lung Association. "Losing support from the CDC will have devastating impacts on asthma programs in states and communities across the country, programs that we know are improving the lives of millions of people with asthma," said Anne Kelsey Lamb, director of the Public Health Institute's Regional Asthma Management and Prevention program. "And the thing is that we know a lot about what works to help people keep their asthma well controlled, and that's why it's so devastating." The Trump administration cited cost savings and efficiency in its April announcement of the cuts to HHS. Requests for comment from the White House and HHS's CDC about cuts to federal asthma and related programs were not answered. The information wars Fresno, in the heart of California's Central Valley, is one of the country's top 20 "asthma capitals," with high rates of asthma and related emergencies and deaths. It's home to programs that receive funding through the National Asthma Control Program. Health care professionals there also rely on another aspect of the program that is under threat if it's shuttered: countrywide data. The federal asthma program collects information on asthma rates and offers a tool to study prevalence and rates of death from the disease, see what populations are most affected, and assess state and local trends. Asthma educators and health care providers worry that the loss of these numbers could be the biggest impact of the cuts, because it would mean a dearth of information crucial to forming educated recommendations and treatment plans. "How do we justify the services we provide if the data isn't there?" said Graciela Anaya, director of community health at the Central California Asthma Collaborative in Fresno. Mitchell Grayson, chair of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation's Medical Scientific Council, is similarly concerned. "My fear is we're going to live in a world that is frozen in Jan. 19, 2025, as far as data, because that was the last time you know that this information was safely collected," he said. Grayson, an allergist who practices in Columbus, Ohio, said he also worries government websites will delete important recommendations that asthma sufferers avoid heavy air pollution, get annual flu shots, and get COVID-19 vaccines. Disproportionate risk Asthma disproportionately affects communities of color because of "historic structural issues," said Lynda Mitchell, CEO of the Asthma and Allergy Network, citing a higher likelihood of living in public housing or near highways and other pollution sources. She and other experts in the field said cuts to diversity initiatives across federal agencies, combined with the rollback of environmental protections, will have an outsize impact on these at-risk populations. In December, the Biden administration awarded nearly $1.6 billion through the EPA's Community Change Grants program to help disadvantaged communities address pollution and climate threats. The Trump administration moved to cut this funding in March. The grant freezes, which have been temporarily blocked by the courts, are part of a broader effort by the Trump EPA to eliminate aid to environmental justice programs across the agency. In 2023 and 2024, the National Institutes of Health's Climate Change and Health Initiative received $40 million for research, including on the link between asthma and climate change. The Trump administration has moved to cut that money. And a March memo essentially halted all NIH grants focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI — funds many of the asthma programs serving low-income communities rely on to operate. On top of those cuts, environmental advocates like Isabel González Whitaker of Memphis, Tennessee, worry that the proposed reversals of environmental regulations will further harm the health of communities like hers that are already reeling from the effects of climate change. Shelby County, home to Memphis, recently received an F on the American Lung Association's annual report card for having so many high ozone days. González Whitaker is director of EcoMadres, a program within the national organization Moms for Clean Air that advocates for better environmental conditions for Latino communities. "Urgent asthma needs in communities are getting defunded at a time when I just see things getting worse in terms of deregulation," said González Whitaker, who took her 12-year-old son to the hospital because of breathing issues for the first time this year. "We're being assaulted by this data and science, which is clearly stating that we need to be doing better around preserving the regulations." Back in California's Imperial Valley — where the majority-Hispanic, working-class population surrounds California's largest lake, the Salton Sea — is an area called Bombay Beach. Bejarano calls it the "forgotten community." Homes there lack clean running water, because of naturally occurring arsenic in the groundwater, and residents frequently experience a smell like rotten eggs blowing off the drying lakebed, exposing decades of pesticide-tinged dirt. In 2022, a 12-year-old girl died in Bombay Beach after an asthma attack. Bejarano said she later learned that the girl's school had recommended that she take part in Comite Civico del Valle's at-home asthma education program. She said the girl was on the waiting list when she died. "It hit home. Her death showed the personal need we have here in Imperial County," Bejarano said. "Deaths are preventable. Asthma is reversible. If you have asthma, you should be able to live a healthy life." KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
E&E News
6 days ago
- Politics
- E&E News
‘Sitting duck'? Meet an EPA environmental justice staffer.
Swati Rayasam knew her job at EPA would be upended. She just didn't expect it to happen so soon. 'You are receiving this email because you have been identified as an EPA employee working in 'environmental justice' or a diversity, equity, and inclusion position and/or office,' the Feb. 6 message read. Rayasam, an environmental protection specialist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, was immediately placed on paid administrative leave. Now threatened with a potentially permanent layoff, she's one of hundreds of EPA employees facing dismissal or reassignment in a purge without precedent. Advertisement For Rayasam, it likely spells the end of a career begun only a year and a half ago. But the episode also highlights a seeming paradox at the heart of the Trump administration's agenda as EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin highlights the importance of clean air, land and water for 'every American.'
Mail & Guardian
6 days ago
- Health
- Mail & Guardian
Environmental injustice is becoming the new normal – we must resist it
The Klipspruit river polluted by sewage and mine waste in Soweto. (File photo by Delwyn Verasamy) On this World Environment Day, I find myself reflecting less on trees, oceans, and plastic waste, and more on people's lack of access to clean drinking water and safe sanitation. More particularly, I am thinking about the ways in which systemic environmental injustice is becoming frighteningly normalised by the generalised state of dysfunction in municipalities across South Africa. It is a crisis that is now spreading across historic divisions of class, race, and geography. Whether you live in a township, a rural village, a flat in a so-called 'middle-income' area, or even in the leafy, wealthier suburbs, you are not immune. This crisis is becoming everyone's crisis. And yet, it's still the most marginalised and vulnerable who suffer first and most. I want to share just three examples I personally witnessed in the past month. These are not extreme or isolated events; they are the daily, grinding reality for a large portion of South Africans. They reflect a system of environmental neglect and both government and private-sector-driven pollution that is eroding people's rights and dignity. Orlando Women's Hostel At the Orlando Women's Hostel in Johannesburg, raw sewage has been overflowing from two blocked sewer lines for nearly seven years. The spill has created what can only be described as a lake – a festering, open swamp of human waste flowing past homes, into streets, and eventually into the already heavily polluted Klip River. Adult residents speak of summer days spent holed up indoors to keep out the flies, while children play outside next to the stinking swamp. When I reported it to Johannesburg Water, they unblocked one drain and left. The sewage kept flowing. I was then told it's a housing issue – the hostel falls under municipal housing, and the matter must be referred there. That's where accountability ends. Activists come, journalists come, yet nothing changes. This is not an accident – it's a systemic failure of the state; it is environmental injustice in its most direct and practical sense. A violation of the right to dignity, the right to health, and the constitutional right to a clean and safe environment. WaterWorks informal settlement The irony of the name is not lost on the people of WaterWorks, where water doesn't work at all. WaterWorks is an informal housing settlement. Residents rely on JoJo tanks that are sporadically filled and cleaned by Joburg Water – if at all. When I visited, the tanks hadn't been filled for three days. To make matters even worse, these tanks are scattered far apart, making them hard to access, especially for elderly residents who are forced to pay young people R10 to R20 per trip to carry water. This is money taken from already meagre SASSA grants. The toilets in WaterWorks are shared chemical units. One elderly woman related how one night she was suffering from diarrhoea but was too scared to walk alone in the dark at 2am to reach a toilet far from her house. Such daily realities chip away at one's dignity; basic human rights are made conditional, fragile, and unequal – tied to geography and class. Environmental justice is not just about having clean air and protecting flora and fauna; it's the ability to use a toilet safely and access water with dignity. Claremont council flats In Claremont, a small pocket of council flats has had no reliable water for nearly a decade. This cannot be explained by elevation, pressure, or some complicated infrastructure glitch. The community has tried to explain to city authorities that their water challenges are not related to recent maintenance issues or leaking reservoirs. The harsh reality is that Claremont's scattered blocks of flats have been – and remain – forgotten. All residents are asking is to be heard and for a proper investigation to be done. When I met residents, they simply wanted to be acknowledged, to have some short-term solutions implemented – like extra JoJo tanks – and, most of all, clear answers. In the meantime, they've adapted. They keep records of water outages not in months or years, but in life events. 'My firstborn is 11 – I came home from the hospital with no water.' 'My grandson is 6 – when we brought him home, I was fetching water with pots.' 'When my mother had a stroke, I had no water to wash her.' What this reveals so clearly is that the impact of environmental injustice is not abstract. It is intimate. It lives in our births, our deaths, our illnesses – and our everyday survival. What I have briefly outlined are just three cases, all taken within a period of just one month, in just one metro. Multiply that by every small town, every metro, every province, every forgotten township, every rural area – and you can start to see the scale of the crisis and the challenges we need to confront and change. On World Environment Day, we must challenge – in word and deed – the assumption that environmental issues are somehow separate from daily life. The environment is not somewhere 'out there.' It is our sewerage systems, our taps, our rivers, our toilets. And increasingly, those systems are failing – not because of nature or a few bad entities and officials, but because of systemic government mismanagement and indifference, grounded in the structural inequalities that remain deeply embedded in South African society. While environmental injustice is very much about the toxic waste that big industries dump into our rivers, it is also very much about what our own government consciously allows – or directly causes – in places where they think no one is watching, or where no one powerful lives. We simply cannot allow this to continue. If we are serious about justice – environmental, social, or economic – we need to hold all those entities and individuals responsible, accountable. The only way that is going to happen is if we come together, across the very same divisions of class, race, and geography that this crisis traverses. Power can belong to the people. Dr Ferrial Adam is the executive director of
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
National City fuel station meeting postponed due to concerns raised by California Coastal Commission
NATIONAL CITY, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — A controversial fuel transfer station was set to go before the National City planning commission, but in the final hour before the meeting Monday night, the item was pulled from the agenda. 'We already have pollution that is too high level, so whatever things they've approved in the past, they've already exceeded the limit,' Bradley Bang said. National City residents packed the commission meeting ready to rally against a proposed fuel transfer facility, but their efforts were cut short. City staff addressed a last minute, lengthy letter from the coastal commission which included a request to postpone the hearing based on concerns surrounding sea level rise, wetland resources and environmental justice. Local business owner Luisa McCarthy also brought forward letters from the California Air Resources Board she believes were also not disclosed. 'Where it stipulates in bold about how the project will further expose residents to elevated levels of pollution,' McCarthy said. Federal documents on Buona Forchetta ICE raid released The project is planned near Cleveland Avenue and 19th Street at the BNSF rail station. If eventually approved by city council, the facility would run 24/7 with about 70 trucks coming through daily to pick up renewable fuels like diesel and ethanol from trains and then make nearby deliveries. 'It is within half a mile of Kimball Elementary school. It's within less than that of residence and McKinley Apartments that live right there. Residents and an elementary school that have some of the highest rates of asthma throughout San Diego County,' said Jose Franco Garcia, Executive Director for the Environmental Health Coalition. Meantime, members of the Laborers San Diego Local 89 are in support of the fuel station. They have an agreement to work on construction if the project goes through. USD Clean fuels issued a statement saying in part, it is 'confident this project will be beneficial for National City, the greater San Diego area, and California. By bringing clean fuels to an existing railroad site, our project will create a more efficient and sustainable infrastructure in National City and the surrounding region.' The planning commission's next meeting is scheduled for July 21, which is likely the earliest the project will be back on the agenda for full consideration. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Verge
02-06-2025
- Climate
- The Verge
Devastating wildfires in Canada are creating an air quality disaster in the US.
The worst wildfires in decades are tearing through Saskatchewan, Canada and at least two people have been killed in blazes in the neighboring province of Manitoba. Smoke from those fires has triggered air quality warnings in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. It's the kind of climate change-driven disaster that led young people from Minnesota to file suit against the Trump administration last week. Wildfire smoke can be 10 times as toxic as other air pollutants.
