The Southern California Air Quality Management District sponsored the convention — called “Asthma Is a Small World” — that attracted hundreds to the Disneyland Hotel last Thursday and Friday. (www.aqmd.gov.)
Rap and Asthma
Strictly up to date culturally, the conference study sessions even included a rap music video talking about the ubiquity of asthma.
“I could not understand very much of what was said in the video, but I do know it was about one of the conference’s objectives,” Ms. Anderson said. “Asthma is a global problem.
“Where can we make a difference?
“The younger we educate children, the better.
Children’s Hour
“Children were nearby, and one emphasis was sending messages to children.
“Let kids know… They should get help if they have a breathing problem. And they should understand how to take their medication.
“This was not a clinic on understanding that, but alerting those of us who are members of the public, caring professionals.”
Assimilating Data
Ms. Anderson said, however, asthma is not a focus of her medical practice at the TriMaru Acupuncture Clinic on Overland Avenue (www.trimaru.com).
Collecting general and specific information, the Health Commission member said that “it was helpful to learn about the importance of air quality for communities to hear.
A Sustainable Community
“Culver City is putting together a focus group to help this community become a more sustainable city. And meetings are coming up soon (www.culvercity.org). I learned some information at the conference that will be helpful in studying how to become more sustainable.”
For many of Culver City’s 40,000 residents, the community may be just the right distance from the ocean, sufficient to benefit from daily afternoon breezes.
But Ms. Anderson pointed out that some neighbors have different issues — for socioeconomic reasons.
Ocean breezes, she said, hardly are an aid to families situated close to freeways and similar locations that foul the air.
Ocean Not a Solution
“The ocean is not large enough to offset the bad air caused by a facility when you are next to it,” Ms. Anderson said.
“Can we solve the problem? I am not sure. But the city is making strides, for example, with our busses that run on natural gas. If the city can make a difference, we can, too.”
Ms. Anderson described the convention as an informational event. “It was not necessarily a call to action,” she said, “more like ‘Here are the studies we have done. Here are the statistics.’”
A Bill to Watch
Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles), Speaker of the Assembly, used the Disneyland Hotel convention as one more springboard for promoting a favorite masure of his, Assembly Bill 32, which deals with global warming and the potential reduction of air pollution.
Ms. Anderson was not a passive participant in the Disneyland conference.
“I test drove the natural gas car,” she said. “It is a combustible engine car, the same fuel the busses are running on. It’s a great car. Honda is producing the car right now.
Too Far Apart
“But the issue is, it is not a mass market vehicle at the moment. If I want to visit my sister in Nevada, I will have a problem.”
Lack of filling stations.
In the spirit of the convention, though, Ms. Anderson said, “We have to start somewhere.”
