Countdown to the Election

I’m so glad someone is asking the question! Every person, everywhere is affected by air quality: whether they want to believe it or not. There are some tremendously successful (yet relatively small) programs in Merced County. The Merced-Mariposa Asthma Coalition is participating in the air quality flag program that lets students, parents, and teachers know when air quality is dropping and the steps necessary to protect our children. This is such a great first step, and we need to help them expand the program. But then we get back to my mantra: “What Now?” Again, we need to take the data that’s being generated on air quality and correlate it to health data, such as uncontrolled asthma attacks.  Then we need to overlay that data with geographic information, such as proximity to freeways, aerial agricultural spraying, etc. Then create project partners from various groups (in this example, it might be farmers and parents of asthmatic children) to collaborate and work out a reasonable solution.