As planners, how can we bring together the architects, developers, and public health officials to ensure that there are design measures in place to reduce the harm of living near freeways.
8.05.2011
The Air We Breathe
In the affordable housing lecture this week, I asked a question about how to remediate the health effects from particulate matter when transit oriented developments are built near freeways. The answer that we got was essentially that there wasn't a whole a lot of follow-up research on new developments and these harmful effects, however, I just came across this article on "Black Lung Lofts," in Los Angeles, which summarizes the some of the recent research quantifying the harm.
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Yes, exposure to air pollution in housing developments that are too close to freeways and other sooty sources is a major problem. A lot of people are talking about it right now, for example: http://www.rampasthma.org/convenings/environments/
ReplyDeletePeople around California are starting to pay more attention to this issue, slowly developing policies to prevent high risk housing situations. Follow the link above to a policy summary of who is doing what to protect residents. The Bay Area Air Management District and the City of Oakland have strong policies on health and air quality.
Best,
Diane Bailey
Thank you for the link to RAMP. I'm looking through the presentations on the site now.
ReplyDelete-E. Chan