Posts Tagged: air quality
Emergency resources
Dear UC ANR Community,
We have all experienced so many challenges this year, and now we face the challenges wrought by more than 300 wildfires around the state. Some of you have had to evacuate to safety, wondering if your homes will be standing when you return. Others are sheltering family and friends who have had to evacuate. Power outages and poor air quality are adding to the stresses we face in the midst of a global pandemic.
We would like to remind you of resources that are available to help the UC ANR community weather this time of crisis.
- Supervisors are encouraged to be flexible and understanding with staff who have been impacted by the fires or power outages. If you cannot work due to fire impacts, contact your supervisor. Supervisors should contact Jodi Rosenbaum (jrosenbaum@ucanr.edu) about paid leave options.
- For those in need of further assistance, the Academic and Staff Assistance Program (ASAP) offers confidential and cost-free assessment, intervention, consultation and referral services to you and your families.
- Emergency resources from UC's benefit plans can be found at: https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/compensation-and-benefits/emergency-resources.html
- Use the following safety notes and UC ANR fire website links to help with emergency preparedness and safety:
167 Be Informed about Emergencies
168 Make a Plan for Emergencies
169 Build a Kit of Emergency Supplies
https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Prepare/
https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Safety/Evacuation/
https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Safety/Current/
https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Safety/AirQuality/
- Monitor air quality in your area using https://www.airnow.gov. Your local Air Quality Management District may also be a good source of detailed information. When checking the Air Quality Index, be sure to look specifically for the rating/number associated with AQI for5. Particulate Matter of 2.5 microns (PM2.5) is the pollutant of concern that is most typically associated with wildfire smoke. Anything above an AQI of 151 for PM2.5 is considered unhealthy.
- Use social media to stay up to date on the situation in your area: follow your County's emergency services, the Sheriff's office, CalFire, etc. to stay informed.
I am grateful to the firefighters who are working so hard to protect our state and to all of you for your resiliency and commitment to our mission. Thanks for all you do and stay safe out there!
Glenda Humiston
Vice President
Guidance for managing poor air quality conditions
As wildfires continue to burn in the north and south portions of the state, many of us are also affected by poor air quality. For the past several days, throughout much of Northern California, air quality measurements have ranged from “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” to “Very Unhealthy” as measured by the Air Quality Index (AQI).
Based on public health and air quality management information, we have developed the following recommendations:
- Monitor your local air quality predictions and real-time data. Most county or regional Air Quality Management Districts post this information on their website. You can find your local Air Quality Management District here: https://www.arb.ca.gov/capcoa/dismap.htm.
- As much as possible, avoid strenuous work or other activities outside when the AQI is in the Unhealthy range or above. Most buildings have air filtration and the effects of the poor outdoor air quality are reduced inside.
- Since individual employees can have different sensitivity to poor air quality, supervisors should allow employees to take a sick day, or modify their work activities, if needed to reduce exposure.
- If you cannot postpone outdoor work, consider using a respirator that will filter the particulate pollution that is in the air, such as an N95. However, be aware that when a particulate respirator is working effectively, it can slightly restrict air flow and make breathing more difficult. People with chronic respiratory, cardiac or other medical conditions that make normal breathing difficult should check with their doctor before using an N95 or any respirator.
- If you are using a respirator, read the instructions on proper use, so you know what it will protect against, and how to wear it properly. The respirator must fit tight in order to be effective. For more information about how to properly wear a respirator, see http://www.sparetheair.com/assets/FaceMasks-FiltersInfo.pdf
- Normally, the use of a respirator at work is to prevent exposure to workplace breathing hazards and a medical evaluation and a fit test are required. However, due to these extreme environmental conditions, voluntary use of a respirator may be appropriate, as long as the employee is provided the following information about respirator use:
http://safety.ucanr.edu/Programs/Respiratory_Protection_Program/Voluntary_Use_Provisions/ - For more details about use of respirators, see NIOSH: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/respirators/
- If your office needs to close due to fire-related conditions, the County Director, REC Director, or other leader should contact Brian Oatman (baoatman@ucanr.edu or 530-304-2054) to inform ANR administration of the closure.
The UC ANR Fire in California website has additional tips and information:https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Current/Health/Air_Quality/
You can also consult the UCANR Environmental Health & Safety website at: http://safety.ucanr.edu.
Brian Oatman
Director, Risk & Safety Services
View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
New dust sources resulting from a shrinking Salton Sea have negative ecological and health impacts
Scientists at UC Riverside investigating the composition of particulate matter (PM) and its sources at the Salton Sea have found that this shrinking lake in Southern California is exposing large areas of dry lakebed, called playa, that are acting as new dust sources with the potential to impact human health.
“Playas have a high potential to act as dust sources because playa surfaces often lack vegetation,” said Roya Bahreini, an associate professor of environmental sciences, who led the research project. “Dust emissions from playas increase airborne PM mass, which has been linked to cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and mortality.”
Study results appeared recently in Environmental Science and Technology.
Bahreini's team set out to test whether emissions from playas change the composition of PM10 (particulate matter with diameters up to 10 microns) near the Salton Sea. The team assessed the composition of playa soils (recently submerged underneath the Salton Sea), desert soils (located farther from the sea), and PM10 collected during August 2015 and February 2016.
They found that dust sources contributed to about 45 percent of PM10 at the Salton Sea during the sampling period while playa emissions contributed to about 10 percent. Further, they found that playa emissions significantly increased the sodium content of PM10.
Her team also found that playa soils and PM10 are significantly enriched in selenium relative to desert soils.
Bahreini explained that selenium can be a driver of aquatic and avian toxicity. “Additionally, higher selenium enrichments in PM10 during summertime suggest that selenium volatilization from the playa may become an important factor controlling the selenium budget in the area as more playa gets exposed,” she said.
Alexander L. Frie, a graduate student in environmental sciences and the first author of the research paper, urges that the Salton Sea be paid close attention since, although it is widely considered a large ecological disaster, with no serious monitoring and remediation efforts the sea may also create a human health crisis for the surrounding area.
Samantha C. Ying, an assistant professor of environmental sciences and a coauthor on the paper, stresses that monitoring the increase in dust sources over time is necessary to quantify its contribution to local health problems.
“Our study shows that the shrinking Salton Sea is contributing to dust sources in the region,” she said. “Even considering just the small area of playa that is exposed now, the contributions are significant.”
Another concern the researchers point out is that water that is currently diverted from the Colorado River and directed into the Salton Sea is scheduled to end before 2018. The resultant decrease of inflow into the sea will likely cause a decline in water level, exposing more playa, and therefore emitting more dust.
“With more playa being exposed, we expect total PM10 concentrations to increase and human exposure to these particles in downwind areas will also increase,” Bahreini said. “Therefore implementing any project, for example, creating shallow water pools over the playa, that limits formation of salt crusts on the playa will be valuable.”
Bahreini, Frie and Ying were joined in the study by Justin H. Dingle, a graduate student in Bahreini's lab.
The study was funded by UCR Regents' Faculty Development Award, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a UCR Provost Research Fellowship, the U.S. Geological Survey and ANR's California Institute for Water Resources.
Read more:
KPBS, David Wagner New Study Traces Airborne Dust Back to Shrinking Salton Sea
The Desert Sun, Ian James Studying dust around the Salton Sea, scientists find initial answers
Palm Desert Patch The Hidden, Potentially Deadly, Dangers of The Salton Sea
Pollution Unequally Affects Latinos, Immigrant Communities
The findings, from Washington State University published in the journal Social Science Review, are just the latest to correlate minorities and low-income Americans of all ethnic groups to areas of higher air pollution. Of particular concern is particulate matter, the microscopic particles emitted from manufacturing and automobiles that can cause cancer, heart disease, respiratory illnesses, birth defects and a host of other ills.
Non-English-speaking immigrants, who are more likely to be Latino, bear the worst of this burden, lead paper author Raoul Liévanos, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology at WSU, told weather.com. The underlying reason for this, he said, is that minority immigrant communities are often clustered near pollution-clogged freeways and industrial areas, a trend spanning back to the city planning developments of the late 1800s.
“It seems to be that there are these important historical residential patterns, really shaped by historical housing policies,” he said. “That really informed how these communities were set up and who is living there now.”
The paper correlated U.S. census data with detailed EPA maps of particulate pollution, including industrial and automobile sources, and found that at the regional level, Latinos were the most-likely to live in areas of high pollution. Other minority groups were also highly affected, as were low-income white Americans.
"That may be suggesting that around freeways and industrial areas, in the regional context, it is, a lot of time, the non-white immigrants that are clustered more closely [to these areas]," Liévanos said. Low-income whites are likely to live in these areas as well, just slightly farther away from the primary sources of contamination.
The findings show an association between Latino communities and pollution and do not attempt to discover the rate of pollution-related diseases among these populations. But the data could serve as a guide to future work investigating the burden of pollution on individuals, Liévanos said. Public-health interventions in these cities should be tailored to non-English speaking populations and these communities should be included in future urban planning processes, he said as well.
The paper, "Race, deprivation, and immigrant isolation: The spatial demography of air-toxic clusters in the continental United States," was published in the November issue of Social Science Research.
Source: Published originally on weather.com as Study: Pollution Unequally Affects Latinos, Immigrant Communities, November 2, 2015.
Calculate Your VOC Emissions
As summer continues to heat up, keep in mind that regulations remain in effect to reduce the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can be emitted into the atmosphere by pesticides and other harmful chemicals and contribute to the amount of ozone or smog in the environment.
Calculators from the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) that determine the VOC emissions from fumigant and non-fumigant pesticides before application are available to help growers, pest control advisers, and pesticide applicators comply with the regulations. The UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program provides a link to these calculators from each of the treatment tables in the UC Pest Management Guidelines. Click on the Air Quality – Calculate emissions button.
Take steps to reduce VOCs. Avoid emulsifiable concentrate (EC) formulations as they release the highest VOC emissions. Pesticide control advisers and growers can also reduce VOC emissions by employing IPM practices such as using resistant varieties, traps, exclusion, and biological control. When using pesticides, spot-treat and seek low-emission materials. Solid formulations, such as granules or powders, are best.
Check the fact sheet on the DPR web site for the most up-to-date-information on VOC restrictions and regulations.
air emissions button