Air/Environmental Pollution and trauma in Lennox Community

The organization we chose was Juntos, Juntos is a nonprofit organization cultivates a network of supportive services and grassroots leadership that promotes safety and wellness for Lennox children. Especially those who have experienced trauma in the community. Juntos’ services include: Individual therapy for students, Family therapy, Parent education, Teacher training and support, Wellness groups, Resources and referrals, Community collaboration, An emerging gang prevention coalition, Youth leadership and empowerment, Trauma Informed services, In-class presentations/workshops to students on mindfulness and tools for self-regulation. These services help the students cope with their traumas/ mental health issues. 

JUNTOS Community Partners serves the area of Lennox, California. The city of Lennox encapsulated by two specific highly traveled freeways, the 405 to the west and the 105 to the south, which inevitably increases the pollution in the city because of the automotive exhausts. The city of Lennox is also in the flight path of airplanes or jets that land on LAX. The neighboring cities of Lennox include Los Angeles and Inglewood. Based on the data provided by the 2010 Census, the Lennox population is about 22,753. The amount of males in Lennox in comparison to females in Lennox is highly proportionate with 50.9% of the population being females and 49.1% are males. The median resident age is 29.5 while the median household income in 2017 was $43,705 in comparison to the median household income in all of California in 2017 which was almost double, $ 71, 805. According to data from the year 2017, a significant 27.6% of the residents in Lennox live in poverty, the majority of those residents belonging to minorities. According to data from 2017 as well, 93.7% of the population of Lennox is Hispanic. The Air Quality Index for Lennox according to data from 2018 is significantly worse than that in all of the U.S. nation as its AQI is 134 while the U.S. stands at 74. JUNTOS Community Partners is a well-rounded organization that serves the Lennox community by providing services in the areas of self-esteem, trauma, obesity, food justice, education and other challenges their community faces. 

We reached out to Juntos for an interview. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do the interview, but we received a PowerPoint from a classmate working with the same organization. In the PowerPoint, we made a research question. Does environmental pollutant really affect a student’s ability to learn? If so, what are the environmental pollutants most common in the Lennox school district and are those related to: students’ ability to learn/ educational success/ health outcomes for people in that community? lastly, does poverty represent risk of trauma to students in the Lennox school district. I found the topic important because I think trauma has a problem on children developing their socio emotional. In which affects their education. Depression and anxieties impact the students’ motivation to learn.  

PTSD has triggers which depends on the person trigger; smell is one type of trigger that makes the person relive their trauma. It could be a place that reminds them of the horrific event they experience. Sexual abuse may be the primary reason many students are traumatized and are affected in schools. Depression is a symptom to many mental illnesses including PTSD. Education is affected due to trigger words and anxiety attacks in class. Air/ environmental pollution can trigger panic attacks or depressed the individual which affects their studies.

Something that we can count on to help us with our hypothesis is how certain smells can cause triggers to people, more specifically to children in the Lennox area which we are focusing in order to help JUNTOS further reach out and help those in need. It has been confirmed by many that smells can trigger any PTSD, as mentioned in the article, “Smells Ring Bells: How Smell Triggers Memories and Emotions” by Jordan Gaines Lewis, “The olfactory bulb has direct connections to two brain areas that are strongly implicated in emotion and memory: the amygdala and hippocampus” this further proves and helps us understand that smell can have a more powerful effect on triggering bad memories than what touch or sound do. That is why we are taking this into account because of how badly polluted Lennox is and with JUNTOS’ goal being to help and promote wellness for children, we think that by finding out the most affected area we can make it easier for JUNTOS to reach out or further promote their program in these areas.  

In an article “Smog in our brains” by Kirsten Weir PhD in psychology states, “These tiny particles — 1/30th the width of a human hair — are spewed by power plants, factories, cars and trucks… The researchers found that long-term exposure to high levels of the pollution significantly worsened the women's cognitive decline, as measured by tests of cognitive skill….. Research is also finding air-pollution-related harms to children's cognition. Shakira Franco Suglia, ScD, an assistant professor at Boston University's School of Public Health, and colleagues followed more than 200 Boston children from birth to an average age of 10. They found that kids exposed to greater levels of black carbon scored worse on tests of memory and verbal and nonverbal IQ (American Journal of Epidemiology, 2008).” Power plants, factories, cars and trucks release pollution put children in danger in developing their cognitive skill and struggles meeting schools standards. It also has long term affects to women. The article never stated but I feel few students who cognitive skill that are affect may experience depression due to struggling in school.

The sensory system can be very different depending on what a person has gone through or believes in. In many people's case, being able to use their olfactory system to smell their favorite food, favorite perfumes, or the nice outside wind is something that they enjoy and probably one of their favorite senses. But this is not the case for everyone, in the article “Smells Ring Bells: How Smell Triggers Memories and Emotions” by Jordan Gaines Lewis, Ph.D. we learn that smell is the most powerful sensor part that we have that can trigger memories or emotions because of its connection to the brain anatomy. Touch and sound do not have a connection with our brain anatomy; therefore, they do not trigger these things. This can be both a good and bad thing, a certain smell from flowers can help you remember a time you had in the park with your friends or family, that is a good trigger, but in other cases smell is one of the worst triggers someone with PTSD can face.. As mentioned in the article, “On one occasion, the smell of diesel from a neighborhood fire instantly conjured the memory of an accident in Vietnam...The smell of diesel frequently caused him to re-experience overwhelming feelings of guilt and helplessness that he initially experienced more than 30 years ago” scientists found that the olfactory bulb has direct connections to two brain areas that are strongly implicated in emotion and memory: the amygdala and hippocampus. They also did tests where participants smelled and looked at a perfume and later showed results whether their emotions were triggered more visually or by smell, ultimately smell won and triggered memories and emotions.  

I think that this article was very helpful when ready for a general purpose and for gathering information on our project. I did know that certain smells can trigger memories, but I did not know that this occurs more with smell because it is linked with our brain anatomy. I don't think there were any weaknesses because the article presented experiments and tests that they did to further prove how smell has a big effect as well as the examples given, they did not talk about only the good effects this has but also the negative ones which can help one better understand how it can affect different people.  

Our Group project will be to make a map consisting areas in the Lennox community expose with air pollution Environmental pollution. we haven't given roles yet of what person will be doing what job. but I'd imagine we will be working on the map together or on different maps. Environmental pollution, mapping highways in the Lennox community. Our variables that will be to measure air/ environmental pollution in the Lennox community. Also try to have a population number of individuals with PTSD or mental illnesses in the Lennox Community. It will show the people at risk in the community. By also having a list of population of children in poverty it will tell us the children at risk. Those ear highways who experience car pollution regularly than those who can afford better conditions. My hypothesis children in poverty are more prone to be expose to pollution which damage their cognitive skill and therefore affects their education. I want to make a map that consist areas of environmental pollution such as factories, highway pollution, pollution of individuals age range under 18, and the poverty levels and highlight it inside the Lennox Community. we can probably separate the map making within our group members if needed more maps than cramping all of this onto one big map. 

For the map about I fit all the variables onto one big map. Concentration of pollution (water, air, environmental), school districts in the community, poverty, and asthma incidence. To measure environmental pollution, I tried mapping highways going downhill (environmental pollutant) toward the Lennox community. I measured School district to see how many private and public schools there are in the community to help measure the poverty population percentage. Poverty was measured by census tract which recorded the population of citizens who are in poverty. It also measures the number of children under the age of 18 who are in poverty as well.  I want to see if there is a case of asthma Incidence are high in the Lennox community to see whether pollution poses a risk of trauma in the neighborhood. I tried looking depression and anxiety because it has related symptoms to trauma. To map the children who are most vulnerable to the pollutant in the Lennox Community. 

It is my first time working with ArcGis and I had trouble finding what I wanted to map with trauma, and PTSD variables. I couldn't find anything specific variables related with trauma to map trauma better. Maybe I do not know the correct variable to map. I wanted to create a map on ArcGis to find trauma in children in the Lennox community. I wanted to viewers to view the potential trauma caused to the community by pollution.

We created a new map, found the area of interest on the map which in this case was the Lennox community, chose a base map that would allow an effective display of the variables and then proceeded onto adding layers that represent the variables we want to see included in the maps including , but not limited to educational attainment, income levels and a separate map for English ability. The English ability layer fit better in a separate map because it would be more effective when mapping the areas within the community where bilingual staff would be highly beneficial. Once we chose the layers, we decided the style of the layers and the transparency that would allow for a greater visibility of the streets.. Then we saved and shared the maps to the Hub Community and the CSULA Spring 2020 Finalized Data Projects Group.  

We made another map to measure the English speakers in the area. Limited English speakers means Juntos staff will need bilingual staff to further help the Lennox community. Our Group project will be to make a map consisting areas in the Lennox community expose with air pollution Environmental pollution. we haven't given roles yet of what person will be doing what job. but I'd imagine we will be working on the map together or on different maps. Environmental pollution, mapping highways in the Lennox community. Our variables that will be to measure air/ environmental pollution in the Lennox community. Also try to have a population number of individuals with PTSD or mental illnesses in the Lennox Community. It will show the people at risk in the community. By also having a list of population of children in poverty it will tell us the children at risk. Those ear highways who experience car pollution regularly than those who can afford better conditions. My hypothesis children in poverty are more prone to be expose to pollution which damage their cognitive skill and therefore affects their education. I want to make a map that consist areas of environmental pollution such as factories, highway pollution, pollution of individuals age range under 18, and the poverty levels and highlight it inside the Lennox Community. we can probably separate the map making within our group members if needed more maps than cramping all of this onto one big map. 

If children live in poverty, then their families will not have all the means necessary to provide their children with all the commodities needed in order for the children to live in a healthy environment and succeed in their schooling. This is why the work of the JUNTOS Community Partners is crucial as it helps shine light on these issues often overlooked by many and at the same time provide aid to the families and children affected by the trauma and focus on preventing further trauma. For example, If the residents of Lennox belong to a low socioeconomic background, then they are less likely to be able to move to a safer, healthier environment for their children as safer healthier environments are usually much more expensive. Adding on to this, unfortunately, with limited means and the constant preoccupation people have with bringing food to the table, there may not be enough time or resources employed to speak out, protest and demand better living conditions and measures to reduce the pollution and other negative factors harming Lennox communities. 

We created a new map, found the area of interest on the map which in this case was the Lennox community, chose a base map that would allow an effective display of the variables and then proceeded onto adding layers that represent the variables we want to see included in the maps including , but not limited to educational attainment, income levels and a separate map for English ability. The English ability layer fit better in a separate map because it would be more effective when mapping the areas within the community where bilingual staff would be highly beneficial. Once we chose the layers, we decided the style of the layers and the transparency that would allow for a greater visibility of the streets.. Then we saved and shared the maps to the Hub Community and the CSULA Spring 2020 Finalized Data Projects Group.