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California Asthma Partners is managed and supported by California Breathing, a program of the California Department of Public Health

5.0 Objectives & Strategies

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5.1. Support policies and community plans that improve conditions for people with asthma.
5.1.1. Use Public Health Impact Assessments (PHIA) in community general plans, and ensure that asthma is included in the PHIAs, and in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process.
5.1.2. Assist with development and improvement of asthma indicators in PHIAs and in the CEQA process.
5.1.3. Support transportation and land use plans and develop model policies that reduce car use and increase use of public transportation, bicycles and walking.
5.1.4. Develop partnerships with groups and agencies that promote pollution-reducing transportation plans and encourage partnerships that support and influence use of resources to expand bicycling\walking options for activities of daily life.
5.1.5. Support efforts to study existing opportunities for alternative energy and make recommendations.
5.1.6. Support community efforts to adopt public transportation plans that utilize "green technology" and "clean energy" vehicles that produce low levels of air pollutants.
5.1.7. Promote and support use of solar energy.
5.1.8. Support strategies such as use of biodiesel, compressed natural gas, carbon tax, greenhouse gas offset purchases, and use of applicance that are energy efficient.
5.1.9. Identify the asthma triggers associated with landscaping (for example, pollen as a major organic\biologic trigger) and promote low allergen landscaping around public and private properties.
5.1.10. Increase the capacity\numbers of people who have the skills and knowledge to evaluate landscapes and to redesign them so they are low allergy landscapes.
5.1.11. Ensure that state properties, schools, hospitals, convalescent homes, medical centers, parks and public spaces have allergy-free or low pollen landscaping.
5.1.12. Endorse a pollen control ordinance by the state.
5.2. Ensure public awareness, participation and transparency in public policy decisions and improve communication between Air Quality Management Districts (AQMDs) and the communities that they serve.
5.2.1. Cultivate leadership in pollution-affected communities by identifying and partnering with current asthma champions and working with environmental justice advocates and with existing coalitions to increase awareness of potential policy decisions and encourage participation at all levels of decision making.
5.2.2. Conduct a public education campaign with consistent messages related to asthma and the outdoor environment, including recommendations for appropriate individual, institutional, or policy action in relation to the Air Quality Index (AQI).
5.2.3. Support consistent policies for all AQMDs in relation to air quality monitoring, issuing air alerts in response to unhealthy AQI, and methods for alerting the public to poor air quality.
5.2.4. Support consistent statewide policies for enacting "spare the air" days and funding free public transportation on affected days.
5.2.5. Support efforts to develop funding for adequate air monitoring station capability in all AQMDs that includes population areas impacted by asthma disparities.
5.3. Target the elimination of disproportionate exposure to outdoor air pollution among specific groups or communities.
5.3.1. Systematically identify communities that are disproportionatley affected by air pollution from nearby sources such as industry, airports, mobile sources, and agricultural lands.

5.3.2. Develop coordinated strategies in identified communities that address disproportionate exposure through participatory research and interventions that raise awareness, support community coalitions, and build policy efforts focused on eliminating disparities.

5.3.3. Request regulatory agencies to consider the impacts of cumulative environmental exposures in policy setting.

5.4. Reduce air pollution from sources such as "goods movement" industries, stationary industries, and transportation.
5.4.1. Identify and report on environmental, social and health costs related to the "goods movement" industry.

5.4.2. Support policy that reduces the pollution from ships, trains, trucks, yard equipment at ports, rail yards, distribution centers, and heavily trafficked freeways and roads.

5.4.3. Support and strenghten air quality improvement plans at the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, and other ports using a range of enforcement mechanisms such as economic assessments, fees, and penalties.

5.4.4. Partner with appropriate agencies to ensure identification of pollution industries and compliance with environmental laws.

5.4.5. Support policy that reduces industrial pollution from major stationary sources of air pollution.

5.4.6. Support the CARB on establishment and enforcement of diesel regulations, such as policies to reduce bus, truck, ship and train idling.*

5.4.7. Encourage the development of efficient and lower pollution impact truck and public transit routes.

5.4.8. Support efforts to re-engineer or upgrade city fleets, construction equipment, school buses, and heavy off road vehicles. Encourage schools and school districts to use low-emission buses and vehicles and abide by laws and guidelines such as the Environmental Protection Agency Clean School Bus USA Guidelines.

5.4.9. Support rigorous emission standards for all motor vehicles.

5.4.10. Work with the State and Consumer Services Agency, CARB, and local and regional air districts to identify activities and vehicles that are heavy emitters, and to prioritize, and regulate with best available technology, consistent with low emissions.

5.4.11. Support public reporting of vehicles and activies that are suspected of emission violations.

5.4.12. Support efforts to reduce levels of sulfur dioxide pollution from diesel fuel by transitioning to vehicles that are low sulfur diesel (ULSD).

5.4.13. Support transition of commuter trains to low-pollution locomotive engines.

5.4.14. Discourage use of wood burning stoves and fireplaces through ordinances and public education.

5.4.15. Support other efforts to attain the National and State Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone, NO2 and particulate matter.

5.4.16. Support research and dissemination of findings about the connection between asthma and global warming and the need for reduction of greenhouse gases.

* Truck idling law: California Code of Regulations, Title 13, Division 3, Chapter 10, Article 1, Section 2485 www.arb.ca.gob/toxics/idling/regext.htm.

5.5 Reduce worker and public exposures to asthma triggers related to agricultural practices, forestry practices and other outdoor workplaces.
5.5.1. Increase dust control measures with particular attention to no-till policies and seasonal activities such as harvest time.
5.5.2. Encourage alternative farming practices such as incentives for no-till, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) or organic farming.
5.5.3. Support research focused on identifying the pesticides in high use that can cause or exacerbate asthma and alternatives to use of pesticides.
5.5.4. Decrease exposure to particulates by minimizing agricultural burning and re-examining forest burning practices.
5.5.5. Support mandatory notification of pesticide use,* agricultural burning, etc., for schools and adjacent housing and other facilities to allow for protection of people with asthma in those areas. Support consistent enforcement of notification policies.
5.5.6. Support efforts to create transparency in decision making regarding roles and responsibilities of public officials (for example, the position of air pollution control officers and agricultural commissioners in counties being held by the same person).
5.5.7. Identify and target outdoor workplaces that have the potential for causing or exacerbating asthma.
5.5.8. Support policy efforts aimed at reduction of exposures to asthma triggers in identified outdoor workplaces (decrease dust, pesticide exposures, truck and bus idling, and allergenic landscaping).
* Notification of pesticide use in schools: Education Code, Section 17608-17613.
5.6 Reduce youth and adult smoking rates and decrease exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.
5.6.1. Promote policy and public education efforts to further reduce smoking prevalence and help people quite smoking (wwwtobaccofreeCA.com).
5.6.2. Support efforts to reduce secondhand smoke exposure in multiple unit housing and other homes.
5.6.3. Reduce access to tobacco products by minors.
5.6.4. Ban outdoor smoking adjacent to public buildings, in public spaces and spaces adjacent to public transit waiting areas.
5.6.5. Reduce the presence of tobacco industry sponsorship at community events.