GreenDorchester (Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition)

Dorchester residents are encouraged to attend the Health Council meeting on Thursday Nov. 18th, from 4 to 5:30 PM, at the Codman Square Health Center, 637 Washington Street.
Anne Lusk, Ph.D., of Harvard School of Public Health is conducting bicycle-related research in the neighborhoods of Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury, to help make bicycling safer in these neighborhoods by improving the environment. Dinner will be provided by Haley House.
Participants can enjoy having good food, while ranking a series of pictures, and talking about what they think about the pictures and bicycling. You do not need to know how to bicycle to participate.

Please note that this bike survey and dinner are also available to other groups who meet regularly. See this invitation for bicycle survey. Please contact Anne directly if your group is interested in participating in this survey on another date.

Bicycle Visual and Verbal Preference Survey – Boston Fall 2010
Anne Lusk, Ph.D. Harvard School of Public Health
AnneLusk@hsph.harvard.edu, 617-432-7076

As promised earlier this year, here is our update on the Dorchester Avenue Air Quality project: 

In May 2010, DEHC began to collect preliminary data on ultrafine particle pollution at selected locations along the Dorchester Avenue corridor. 
We had several objectives in mind, including getting an idea of pollution “hotspots” warranting further investigation or remediation advocacy, providing baseline data for a before-and-after study of the effects of the Dorchester Avenue Transportation Improvement Project, and encouraging more researchers and, more importantly, funding, to study Dorchester’s air quality.

The project’s stated objectives were:

• To initiate a before-and-after study of the effects of the Dorchester Avenue Transportation Improvement Project on air quality affecting residents and those travelling on and near the Avenue,
• To give DEHC an idea of enduring pollution hotspots that would warrant more investigation/possible remediation,
• To encourage researchers to develop more studies of Dorchester’s air quality,
• To help direct DEHC advocacy efforts for specific air quality remediation actions – both temporarily during construction and afterwards,
• To help guide other similar large-scale construction projects with air quality impacts in other Boston neighborhoods,
• To interest funders in supporting DEHC’s air quality work into the future.

DEHC hired two consultants: David Queeley of Community Sustainability Planning, logistics liaison, and Tim McAuley of CHANGE, who provided us with the equipment (two PTRAKs) and training to enable our amazing team – Lauren Ames, Lauren Anderson, Scot Huber and Laura Santel – to test the air quality several times over several weeks.

Mr. McAuley analyzed the collected preliminary air quality data to produce his report, which you can read here.

We are looking for comments and potential new project ideas from others in the air quality research field, please contact us with your feedback.

Dorchester Avenue Air Quality Project:  The Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition (DEHC) is conducting an Air Quality Project, starting this month through July 2010, to collect preliminary air quality data (ultrafine particles) at selected locations along the Dorchester Avenue corridor.  There are several objectives for this project:

·         To initiate a before-and-after study of the effects of the Dorchester Avenue Transportation Improvement Project  on air quality affecting travellers and residents on and near the Avenue

·         To give DEHC an idea of enduring pollution hotspots that might warrant more investigation or possibly remediation

·         To encourage researchers to develop more studies of Dorchester’s local air quality

·         To help DEHC advocate for specific air quality remediation actions – both temporarily during construction and afterwards

·         To help guide other similar large-scale construction projects that may have air quality impacts, in Boston neighborhoods and regionally

·         To interest funders in supporting DEHC’s air quality work into the future

DEHC is working with consultant Tim McAuley of Consulting for Health, Air, Nature & Greener Environment (CHANGE) - he is providing the equipment and training for a team of volunteers who will systematically test air quality at locations along Dorchester Avenue.  After the raw data is collected Mr. McAuley will analyze it and produce a report for DEHC to disseminate to the community. Please take a look at the volunteer opportunity here if you are interested in volunteering. 

As DEHC reported in Nov 2009, the CAFEH Study is gathering data about air pollution and its effects on residents’ health in three communities.  CAFEH is a community based participatory study conducted through Tufts University School of Medicine and four community partners, Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership, Committee for Boston Public Housing, Inc., Chinatown Resident Association and Chinese Progressive Association.

Scientific research on air pollution from motor vehicle exhaust has shown that residents living close to heavily traveled highways may have increased rates of heart disease, asthma, and lung cancer because of their exposure to the nearby highway pollutants.  Residents living in Somerville, South Boston, Dorchester and Chinatown along I-93 and the Mass Pike have high exposure to traffic on these highways.  Activists in these communities Continue Reading »