Air Quality Testing: What You Need to Know
In May 2010, DEHC began an Air Quality Project to study the effects of the Dorchester Avenue Transportation Improvement Project on air quality affecting travelers and residents on and near the Avenue. We have finished collecting preliminary air quality data (ultrafine particles) at locations along Dorchester Avenue, and we are now working with CHANGE (Consulting for Health, Air, Nature & Greener Environment) to analyze the data, which we will release on the dehc.org website. (Click here to view the presentation about air quality we created for Upward Bound and Elmhurst Street Park youth.)
This data will help identify local pollution hotspots, and may help guide other large-scale construction projects that could have air quality impacts in Boston’s neighborhoods.
In addition to DEHC’s air quality project, the Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health (CAFEH), will begin a study of Dorchester’s air quality in September 2010. CAFEH is a project by Tufts University researchers and Continue Reading »
Green Jobs Available in Dorchester
Boston Project Ministries is looking for a Structural Engineer:
“We would like to add a large rooftop vegetable and flower garden to The Boston Project’s garage to help with food costs, improve the environment, and to be an example in our city. Our current need is for a structural engineer to examine the garage to assess if it can handle the weight of a garden.
If you know of someone in this field who would have interest in this volunteer project, please help connect us. Contact Paul with any recommendations. Future opportunities to volunteer with this project exist as well.”
The Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health seeks a Community Outreach Worker:
“We seek committed and mature people who want to make a difference and care about the health and safety of their community. This initiative will study health effects as well as the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs participants have about highway pollution. Educational information will be developed about possible health risk from highway pollution. The ideal candidates for these positions are people who communicate clearly and enjoy working with and listen to others.”
See the full job description for contact information: CAFEH Boston Dorchester Job Flyer.
Mega-study targets SE Expressway pollution (CAFEH)
It’s difficult to imagine, but it is only in the last decade or so that the academic community has really begun to dial in on how air pollutants affect health of people living next door to major highways. But stacks of new research papers have been published in recent years, in part inspiring a new $2.5 million study that promises to be one of the most convincing to date. It’s based at Tufts University in Chinatown and may even send investigators out to Dorchester’s Columbia neighborhood.
Continue Reading »
