California Updates Pollution Mapping Tool to Identify Communities Most at Risk March 6, 2026

American Community Media

“I’ve been in community meetings and workshops where parents describe children who can’t breathe at night. I’ve stood outside schools where diesel buses are idling. I’ve listened into community clinics as clinicians, nurses and doctors talk to me about the asthma epidemic, the heart disease and pregnancy complications, they all tell us this story. But these are not isolated complaints. These are patterns,” explained Martha Dina Argüello, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles.

“When there was no CalEnviroScreen, when we were advocating to begin to address this issue of cumulative burden and impacts, people were like, ‘Well, there’s no data.’ Well, absence of data is not always proof of safety,” she continued. “Permitting decisions were made on one chemical or one facility at a time, and communities were left saying ‘This is not how we live. We live these all together.’”