Post by Dr. Mary Finley-Brook
Children from the Southeast Care Coalition and Southeast Asthma Network of Newport News attended a workshop in the Spatial Analysis Lab (SAL) on December 5, 2015. SAL Intern Jared Goldback Ehmer (’17) led a Google Earth demonstration examining social and environmental issues in the children’s neighborhood. The workshop was taught with assistance from Don Edmunds (’17) and Izzy Pezzulo (’18), students in Professor Finley-Brook’s Local to Global Living Learning Community. The mapping exercise demonstrated spatial proximity between schools the children attend and a coal export plant, highway, shipyard, and various industrial sites generating air emissions harmful to public health.
Nearly twice as many children in Southeast Newport News live with asthma than the national average. For African American children, asthma is the leading reason for school absences and hospital visits, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the December 5th workshop, Dr. Erica Holloman, Program Coordinator for the Southeast Care Coalition, shown below with her newborn son, discussed how the lack of green space and trees in Southeast Newport News exacerbates respiratory disease. Increasing vegetation, such as by planting trees, would improve air quality in this neighborhood predominately covered by paved surfaces.
Dr. Erica Holloman, Program Coordinator for the Southeast Care Coalition, and her newborn son
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified Newport News an as environmentally overburdened, underserved, and economically distressed area. With the Making a Visible Difference in Communities Program, the EPA provides technical support to the Southeast Care Coalition for environmental programs. Environmental Studies faculty members at the University of Richmond, including Mary Finley-Brook (Geography) and Kristine Grayson (Biology), are forging a partnership with Southeast Care Coalition to support and participate in community-based air and water quality monitoring.
For more information, contact Mary Finley-Brook (mbrook@richmond.edu) or check out her website.
