Green Salon - Clean Air, Lung Health, and Good Jobs in the Latino Community

Breathe LA, Los Angeles County's air quality and lung health advocate, will hold a special Green Salon on October 21 featuring environmental, economic, and health experts. They will address the question of whether the Latino community should for the sake of expanding employment, drop state air quality standards, and risk their lung health. Studies show that air pollution affects Latinos more than any major ethnic group in Los Angeles County.
Participants include:

• Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes
• Luis R. Cabrales, Coalition for Clean Air
• Graciela Geyer, SCOPE (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education)
• Oracio Gonzalez, Craton Equity Partners
• Dr. Rishi Manchanda, Program in Social Medicine and Health Equity, St. John's Well Child and Family Centers

This November, Proposition 23 seeks to put an insurmountable hold on California's landmark AB 32 passed in 2006, bipartisan legislation which established targets for reducing Greenhouse Gases. Proponents of the proposition claim that halting the implementation of these statewide environmental guidelines will help reduce our high unemployment rates. The underlying question facing the Latino population is whether it must engage in a tradeoff, sacrificing air quality standards and lung health for new jobs.

 

Latinos in Los Angeles face a number of significant challenges to achieving greater lung health. The prevalence of air pollution exacerbates respiratory diseases, such as asthma and COPD which, too often, remain undiagnosed and untreated; ultimately, these conditions may lead to tragedies that affect every aspect of family well-being. For example, statewide data indicate that Latinos are more likely to go to the Emergency Department to address asthma crises because they lack a comprehensive management plan for the illness.
The fourth annual BREATHE LA Green Salon Series focuses on the Green Streets of LA: how the Los Angeles community is addressing sustainable solutions as they relate to AB 32. BREATHE LA Green Salons are open public forums, encouraging a robust Q&A session. Light refreshments are served at each event.

 

Expanded Speaker Biographies

• Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes has addressed issues of healthcare, transportation, housing, identity protection, energy and the environment. Fuentes is the chairs of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, the Select Committee on the Census, and is a member of the Appropriations, Accountability and Administrative Review, and Banking and Finance committees. He represents an area of the Los Angeles valley that faces high levels of air pollution and a corresponding high prevalence of asthma.
• Luis R. Cabrales is a Deputy with the Coalition for Clean Air (CCA) and coordinates CCA's multilevel air toxic's campaigns. Luis coordinates CCA's Preventing Port Pollution campaign. The goal of this campaign is to secure strong state laws and regulations to reduce pollution from the goods movement system which includes ships, cargo handling equipment and diesel trucks and trains. Graciela Geyer plays a leadership role in SCOPE (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education) and, especially, its work with the Los Angeles Apollo Alliance that plans to "green" Los Angeles' over 1000 city-owned buildings to stimulate local economic development and introduce cleaner, green technologies to inner city communities.
• Oracio Gonzalez serves as Senior Analyst for Craton Equity Partners. He is responsible for screening potential investments, conducting industry and company research, and supporting senior staff throughout the transaction process. Prior to joining Craton, Oracio spent five years working for the California State Legislature, as both a committee consultant and legislative analyst.
• Dr. Rishi Manchanda helped found and currently directs the Program in Social Medicine and Health Equity at St. John's Well Child and Family Centers, one of the largest community health centers for low-income working families in Los Angeles. Through clinical, research, and advocacy programs, the Program increases the capacity of the clinic and its patients to address the living and working conditions that shape health.

 

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