A group of four underserved Sacramento-area neighborhoods are the focus of a Sacramento State project that is researching the link between poor air quality and health issues. 

While environmental studies students gain real-world experience by participating in the research, the county and residents will get valuable information about where and how to find solutions. 

Sac State says the research is funded by grants from the California Department of Justice and the nonprofit Second Nature, whose goal is to incorporate sustainability into higher education.

The research will culminate in early 2024, and include a community report and formal paper on the findings. 

Sac State Professor Wayne Linklater, who is leading the project, spoke with CapRadio’s Insight about the neighborhoods being studied and some of the key information that student-researchers hope to learn.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Interview highlights

On the definition of an ‘environmental justice area’

The definition is multifaceted. It’s not just the air quality. Generally speaking, these are underserved communities, those that could benefit most from environmental and social investment. 

As you can imagine, underserved neighborhoods tend to become established in areas of high pollution because they’re [near] commercial and industrial areas. For example, they have major freeways running through them, or often not just through them, but either side of them; they are bounded by freeways. They’re also part of modern delivery hubs, so they’re exposed to a lot of vehicle emissions. 

On how Sacramento air quality compares with similar sized areas 

The whole Central Valley actually has this problem to varying degrees. Sacramento has one disadvantage compared to other cities in that it’s sitting in the middle of a valley, or a bowl. And that creates a big problem for Sacramento compared to other cities. Cities with a good stiff breeze across them most of the year don’t suffer these problems. We have a challenge. We actually do have to lower air pollutants to solve the problem. 

On which neighborhoods the study is focused on

The areas around Gardenland, around North Highlands, West Arden Arcade, South Sacramento [and] the North Vernon area. 

What we’re doing is taking air quality equipment out into those communities, taking air quality measurements. We’re primarily interested in black carbon, nitrous oxide and carbon monoxide, but also in the heavy metals.

On health issues known to be connected to air quality

The list is growing. But we know, for example, respiratory health is for sure a major loss with deteriorating air quality. But medical science is starting to discover that air quality exacerbates a whole suite of other conditions: It exacerbates diabetes, heart disease, and that’s because the air quality causes inflammation of the lungs and the respiratory system. 

Trees do offset some of this air pollution, they tend to filter and trap. And while Sacramento is known as a very treed city, in actual fact, there are neighborhoods that are pretty barren when it comes to vegetation.

On the length of the research project

The monitoring of air quality is just for one year, and that’s intentional. What we’re trying to do is capture the day-to-day weekly, seasonal, and annual variation in air quality in these neighborhoods. 

We’re focused on vehicle emissions. We have another looming problem, of course, and that’s pollutants that come in from outside the city. And of course, we’re talking about wildfires, which are very topical at the moment. The solution to that problem is a much greater geographical solution.

The key point here for us is that we’re measuring air quality on a much finer scale, and we’re using that information and providing that information to our underserved community partners, in order that they might use that information to advocate and lobby for themselves for better air quality. 

On how researchers work with neighborhoods one-on-one

What’s happening concurrent with the air quality monitoring is our partners in the project — United Latinos, Valley Vision, Breathe California — they have initiated a health survey of our neighborhoods. We’re going to hopefully eventually be able to place the health data alongside the air quality data, to be able to say something useful about the relationship between poor air quality and the health of people living in these neighborhoods. 

On how this research is shaping students 

Most of these students are majoring in environmental studies at Sac State. They are interested often in degrees and careers with business or in local government. We see this sort of partnership between the community and interns as providing them the sorts of experience that they can use in their early career. Not just to achieve those first early career steps, but also give them their sort of instrumental values and knowledge and skills. 

On where there is optimism

I’m pretty optimistic about the situation. It’s going to be a slow, long trajectory. But electrification is going to solve a lot of this problem. The problem it won’t solve is the heavy metals that we’re measuring. Those heavy metals, largely that are in the air from vehicle emissions, aren’t largely from combustion of fuels. They’re actually from wear and tear — things like brake linings. They have some pretty nasty metals in them, and breathing those in are not good for your health. But for many other things, like black carbon [and] nitrous oxide, the electrification of the transport fleet is going to make a huge difference over the next 10, 15, 20 years. 

There’s more thinking to be done. A little bit of zoning, maybe some planning around, rather than laissez-faire transport networks. Maybe we could be smarter about designing networks within the city that expose fewer people to emissions. This is a start in quantifying the problem. We’re going to have to be very creative. 

Editor’s note: Sacramento State is an underwriter for CapRadio.