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  - Health costs to Californians, so far this year, of port related pollution in California.
The Ports of LA  Long Beach Clean Air Action Plan passed in November 2006, and 1500 clean trucks service the ports.
Port Pollution Facts
  • In Long Beach, 20% of children under 17 have been diagnosed with asthma - nearly twice the national average.
  • $67 million: The cost of respiratory problems associated with ports in CA.
  • Diesel Exhaust is responsible for 84% of the cancer risk from air pollution in the Southern California Air Basin.
  • $19 BILLION: Cost on health system due to port pollution. average.
  • Each day the Port of LA emits over 30 tons of NOx, while a half a million cars emits less than 24 tons and the average power plant emits less than 5 tons.
  • 2,400 - Estimated number of premature deaths caused by diesel emissions.
  • 800,000: Number of children that pollution reduction could save from lung disease.
  • Each day the Port of Los Angeles emits over 30 tons of NOx, while a half a million cars emits less than 24 tons and the average power plant emits less than 5 tons.

Port Scene
Health & the Human Condition

Consumers are a fundamental part of the goods movement system.  We all are the reason why goods are brought to market. We rely on how freight is moved to us - how fast and how cheaply, and we have come to expect that we can get goods from anywhere in the world.  But the flipside is that we are also significantly damaged by the current goods movement, through the impacts that it has on health and the human condition.

The goods movement system is highly polluting—at the points of goods production, distribution, consumption, and disposal, as well as pollution generated by the underlying oil-based energy system.  We are all affected by this pollution, given that the air has no boundaries, and our planet is an integrated eco-system. 

Of course, the ports, and most pieces of the goods movement distribution system operate virtually next door to residential neighborhoods, schools, and playgrounds. Many of these areas are low-income communities of color, raising critical environmental and social justice concerns.  The residents of San Pedro, Long Beach, Wilmington, West Oakland, Houston and other port-adjacent neighborhoods bear the brunt of port pollution.  This means they are the closest to the direct pollution from trucks, ships, rail yards, warehouse complexes and freeways, and have higher rates of cancers, respiratory illnesses like asthma, lower birth-weight babies, and many other health damages. 

Just like the unequal burden borne on communities closest to the sites of goods movement, the true costs of the goods movement system aren’t really balanced or shared equally. An example would be the billions in health care costs annually, associated with car, truck, and ship emissions in the US. These costs are not included in either the price of a gallon of gasoline, a gallon of diesel, the price of a ship filled with dirty bunker fuel, or even in the products you buy off the shelf. These costs are paid by consumers in their health care premiums, by tax payers for those who cannot afford their own health care insurance, and sometimes not truly paid at all.  

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