Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116713

Robin Cannon, Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles, 4707 South Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90011, 213.978.7576, robinrc@yahoo.com

This presentation will describe the public health and environmental issues facing the South Central community of Los Angeles and the collaborative health and land use projects conducted to gather environmental exposure data, map the health outcome “hot spots”, educate and aid local community organizing efforts.

The South Central community of Los Angeles, California is predominantly populated with people of color living in low-income, working-class neighborhoods. It is overburdened by polluting industries, unacceptable land uses infrastructures and older housing stock that contain a proliferation of asbestos and lead contamination. Many community residents suffer from asthma and other respiratory ailments and a large number of children suffer from lead poisoning. The community is riddled with abandoned buildings, vacant lots, old industrial uses and commercial facilities interweaved with residential housing. It is inundated with industrial facilities and small businesses that are unable to comply with standards set by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and the EPA. The community abuts the Alameda Corridor, the largest area zoned for industrial use in the United States. Many facilities in the corridor have been abandoned in previous years but there are ongoing efforts to revitalize it.

In 1998/1999 CCSCLA and Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches (LAM), a sister agency, partnered with UCLA's School of Urban Planning to look at the public health concerns posed by toxic waste in the community. The results of a mapping study shoed that the neighborhoods with South Central are among the dirtiest and most polluted in California.

Learning Objectives:

• To present a case example of the ways in which collaborative health and land use planning research is used as a tool to support community organizing initiatives in South Central Los Angeles.
• To describe the design and administration of a community-led study to identify environmental health issues associated with the excessive number of polluting industries in the community or South Central Los Angeles.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.