|
|||
Late Breaking News |
|||
| Date: August 20, 1998 8:33 pm Contact: California League of Conservation Voters Teresa Schilling, (415) 896-5550 x310 Randy Jurado Ertll, (310) 441-4162 |
|||
Latest News Releases
|
East Los Angeles Activists Fight Diesel Pollution Near Children | ||
| EAST LOS ANGELES - August 20 - Heavy diesel emissions coming
from a big intersection of 4 freeways adjacent to 3 schools are forcing kids to breathe a
cloud of diesel fumes. A group of parents and community groups will hold a news
conference Tuesday, August 25 at 10:30 a.m. calling upon state lawmakers to heed
scientists' recommendation for strong diesel pollution health standards. Bordered by freeways, and a trucking shortcut that sends big rigs barreling down the street, an elementary school, high school, and daycare center are encased in a cloud of diesel exhaust. This health-threatening exhaust causes a layer of dangerous dust -- tiny sootlike particles that lodge inside the lungs -- to settle throughout the site, from inside the lungs of children playing in the schoolyard to the classrooms. Currently, the only protection from the soot is a row of trees planted as a "screen" from the freeways. The news conference precedes two important diesel emission decisions next week in the state capitol. On Wednesday, the Air Resources Board will decide whether to list diesel as a potent cancer-causing danger to the public. The listing would allow the state to craft strategies to curb health-threatening diesel emissions. Also on deck is SB 1083 (Polanco), which would circumvent a decade of scientific research and analysis by blocking the state from regulating diesel as a toxic air contaminant. WHO: Randy Jurado Ertll, California League of Conservation Voters Education Fund Todd Campbell, Coalition for Clean Air Elsa Lopez, Mothers of East L.A -- Santa Isabel Blanca Almador, PTA and Soto Street Elementary School parent Physicians for Social Responsibility WHAT: Parents, physicians and community groups hold a news conference at a school and daycare site surrounded by heavy diesel pollution to call for safer health standards for diesel emissions. WHERE: Soto Street Elementary School, 1020 S. Soto Street, Boyle Heights The news conference site is east of the northeast corner of S. Soto Street and 7th Streets, between Soto St. Elementary and Salisian High School. WHEN: Tuesday, August 25, 10:30 a.m. ### |
|||
