UC Riverside

Ambient air pollutants including aerosols and gas phase pollutants has caused concerns for both air quality and public health, especially in environmental justice region. The Salton Sea region located in southern California, is one such region characterized by high air pollution levels, asthma rates but low socioeconomic status. My dissatisfaction centers around evaluating and comparing the adverse health impacts of ambient air pollution exposure including PM2.5, ozone and windblown dust, as well as characterizing ammonia emissions in the Salton Sea region. In the first study, I examine disparities in air pollution exposure and associated health outcomes in the Coachella Valley. Two different measures of the health outcomes are used to investigate the connections between air pollution exposure and human health. I further investigate whether such relationships vary with socioeconomic status metrics. This research showed that more vulnerable communities are associated with higher levels of PM2.5 and higher emergency room visits, possibly indicating that high exposure, high vulnerability families are less likely to self-report diagnoses relative to more affluent communities. In the second study, I developed a model to separate windblown dust observed in the Salton Sea region by their potential source regions and compare the health impacts of those different dust coming with a case crossover design. Results show increases in both respiratory and cardiovascular hospital admissions with increasing concentrations of dust arriving from over the Salton Sea. Even stronger associations were observed for Salton Sea dust with algae events. These findings are important for air quality mitigation efforts in the region, as they point to the possible significance of water surface sources of toxic particulates alongside the windblown dust sources that currently receive the most attention. In the third study, I characterize potential sources and emission patterns of ammonia in the Salton Sea region through a series of mobile lab measurements. As part of this work, I measured ammonia concentrations near potential sources including cattle feeders and geo-thermal plants. This study fills a knowledge gap of ammonia emissions in the Salton Sea region and contributes to emission inventory development, a major goal of local researchers and policymakers.