Although the majority of Orange County is filled with clean suburbs where good health and environment is expected, in the city of Santa Ana, there are many industrial regions where the air, water, and soil are polluted. These contaminants create an ugly landscape. More importantly, they pose substantial dangers to residents, who are a historically disproportionately marginalized community.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), if the amount of lead in the soil exceeds 400 parts per million (ppm), it is deemed hazardous to health. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment lowered the soil lead risk standard to just 80 ppm. However, in Santa Ana, out of the 1,500 soil samples collected, half of them were found to have exceeded the standard of 80 ppm. Furthermore, some samples were found to have reached an astounding 2,600 ppm, highlighting the severity of the issue.
Interestingly, UCI-led research found that in the soil where the median household income was below $50,000, there was a 440% higher amount of lead than in places with a median household income of $100,000. Furthermore, over 50% of unsafe lead found in samples were primarily in places with more minority residents who cannot afford benefits such as health insurance.
According to the samples collected, two main causes of the lead contamination issue in Santa Ana were found. The first was the excessive use of lead paint up to the year 1978. Buildings were primarily painted using lead paint, and their paint chips and dust continue to be a risk for lead poisoning. However, the main cause of the lead contamination was found to be from historical gasoline emissions. Santa Ana’s many old highways and streets cause higher lead concentrations, especially due to its close proximity to neighborhoods.
In fact, high levels of lead in children can cause many neurological issues such as developmental delay, learning difficulties, loss of appetite/weight loss, hearing loss, seizures, and more. Adults can also suffer from high blood pressure, joint/muscle pain, loss of memory and concentration, mood disorders, miscarriage, and other symptoms.
Although there are still many challenges that the city of Santa Ana faces in regard to its lead contamination, there are many organizations working to make the city a safer place to live. Recently, an initiative headed by Jovenes Cultivando Cambios, called “PloNo Santa Ana!” partnered with the Orange County Environmental Justice (OCEJ) organization to launch a General Plan (GP) to test lead, repair the soil, and to provide health care to residents who are impacted by the lead contamination. Furthermore, professors from UCI and community members of the Inequities in Childhood Life-Course Lead Exposure and Academic Neurobehavioral Outcomes (I-CLEAN) work to further study the impact that lead has on children.
There are several things that all of us can do to alleviate this problem. For example, you can plant vegetation such as sunflowers, spinach, or corn, which have the ability to remove lead from the soil. Furthermore, such plants add much-needed greenspace to cities like Santa Ana. If you want to help advocate for larger changes, then you can join organizations such as the OCEJ PloNo! movement and help change environmental policies on both local and national levels.
All of us can agree that everyone, especially children, deserve to live in clean environments. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that we build a country in which everyone has the right to live free of dangerous pollution and contaminants.
