Air Quality in the San Gabriel Valley

Over the past school year, the Asian and Pacific Islander Obesity Prevention Alliance (APIOPA) has teamed up with Crown and Sceptre, a senior honors society at Mark Keppel High School, to better understand the air that their community members are breathing in Alhambra. This video was filmed, edited, and produced by the amazing members of Crown and Sceptre 2013. With the help of USC Dept. of Environmental Health Sciences and Occidental College's Urban Environmental Policy Institute, our young community advocates took sensor readings using a special device that would share the amount of ultra-fine particulate matter in the local air. Ultra-fine particulate matter is considered very dangerous because the miniscule size makes absorption in to tissue and bloodstream easy, potentially impacting one's body and health. Using the air up in the San Gabriel Mountains as a baseline, the young advocates measured air around their school, which is unfortunately located within 150 feet of the 10 freeway. The results were shocking. Ultra-fine particulate matter was anywhere from double to ten times the amount (this happened when the metrolink passed by the school) in the mountains. For more information, please contact Scott Chan, [email protected], or visit our website at www.apiopa.org