RESUMO

Initiated in response to community concerns about high levels of air pollution and asthma, the Imperial County Community Air Monitoring Project was conducted as a collaboration between a community-based organization, a non-governmental environmental health program, and academic researchers. This community-engaged research project aimed to produce real-time, community-level air quality information through the establishment of a community air monitoring network (CAMN) of 40 low-cost particulate matter (PM) monitors in Imperial County, California. Methods used to involve the community partner organization and residents in the development, operation, and use of the CAMN included the following: (1) establishing equitable partnerships among the project collaborators; (2) forming a community steering committee to guide project activities; (3) engaging residents in data collection to determine monitor sites; (4) providing hands-on training to assemble and operate the air monitors; (5) conducting focus groups to guide display and dissemination of monitoring data; and (6) conducting trainings on community action planning. This robust community engagement in the project resulted in increased awareness, knowledge, capacity, infrastructure, and influence for the community partner organization and among community participants. Even after the conclusion of the original research grant funding for this project, the CAMN continues to be operated and sustained by the community partner, serving as a community resource used by residents, schools, researchers, and others to better understand and address air pollution and its impacts on community health, while strengthening the ability of the community to prepare for, respond to, and recover from harmful air pollution.

Assuntos

RESUMO

Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993, there has been an increasing need to monitor environmental health trends that may be related to the rapid industrialization of the United States/Mexico border. We studied two counties on the California/Baja California border to obtain baseline data on trends in childhood asthma hospitalizations and two pollutants that aggravate asthma, ozone and particulate matter (less than 10 microns in diameter), from 1983 to 1994. Hospital discharge records of children 14 years and younger were analyzed, and rates by county, race, and sex were age-adjusted to the 1990 California population. Data on five ozone and particulate matter indices obtained from the California Environmental Protection Agency were used. Imperial County had the highest childhood asthma hospitalization rates in California for non-Hispanic whites and African-Americans, and the second highest for Hispanics. San Diego County had rates below the state average. Over the County decreased 9 por ciento. Maximum ozone levels increased 64 por ciento in Imperial County but decreased 46 por ciento in San Diego County. High rates of childhood asthma hospitalizations in Imperial County may be partially related to high levels of poverty and worsening air quality conditions produced by increased burdens on the local airshed. Asthma prevalence surveys and binational time-series analyses examining asthma-pollutant relationships are needed

Desde que se firmó el Tratado de Libre Comercio en 1993, ha aumentado la necesidad de monitorear problemas de salud que podrían relacionarse con la rápida industrialización de la frontera mexicana-estadounidense. Estudiamos dos condados de la fontera entre California y Baja California con objeto de obtener datos de base sobre las tendencias observadas de 1993 a 1994 en las hospitalizaciones por asma en la infancia y sobre dos sustancias contaminantes que empeoran el asma: el ozono y las partículas en suspensión (de menos de 10 micras de diámetro). Se examinaron los registros de egresos hospitalarios de niños menores de 14 años y las tasas por condado, raza y sexo se ajustaron por edades a la población del estado de California en 1990. Para el ozono y las partículas en suspensión se usaron cinco índices obtenidos de la Agencia Californiana para la Protección del Medio Ambiente (California Environmental Protection Agency). El condado Imperial tuvo las tasas más altas de hospitalización por asma en niños blancos no hispanos y afroamericanos de todo el estado de California, y las segundas más altas del estado en niños hispanos. El condado de San Diego tuvo tasas inferiores al promedio estatal. Durante el período estudiado, las tasas del condado Imperial aumentaron 59%, mientras que las del condado de San Diego bajaron 9%. Las concentraciones máximas de ozono aumentaron 64% en el condado Imperial, pero se redujeron 46% en el condado de San Diego. Las concentraciones de partículas en suspensión fueron cuatro veces mayores en el condado Imperial que en el de San Diego. Las altas tasas de hospitalización por asma en niños en el condado Imperial podrían deberse en parte a las condiciones de pobreza y a la calidad cada vez peor del aire por aumento de la carga de contaminación que enfrenta el ambiente local. Hacen falta encuestas para investigar la prevalencia de asma y análisis temporales binacionales que examinen la relación entre esta enfermedad y la presencia de sustancias contaminantes.

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Assuntos