News Coverage
Air tops Hispanic group's issues list Forum is opening an office in Fresno to focus on the environment.
Published July 7, 2002
The Latino Issues Forum, a 15-year old nonprofit public policy and advocacy group based in San Francisco, is opening an office in Fresno to address environmental issues affecting Hispanics in the Valley.
David Granados, the program manager, said his group will push initially to improve the Valley's air quality. It is working with local organizations to plan how it will attack other environmental concerns such as water quality. Granados said improving air quality is one of the Forum's major concerns because of an alarming number of respiratory illnesses among Valley residents. He said Hispanics are afflicted with asthma at a disproportionate rate compared with other ethnic groups.
Granados cited an Environmental Working Group study made public this year that found particulate air pollution in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods is 36% higher than in predominantly non-Hispanic white neighborhoods across the state. The study said elevated levels of pollution mean higher rates of respiratory and cardiopulmonary diseases.
Dr. David Pepper, a faculty member at University Medical Center and a member of the Medical Alliance for Healthy Air, said one in every six children in Fresno County suffers from asthma.
"I don't want this to be another L.A.," said Granados, who moved from Los Angeles to work with the Forum.
He said that establishing a presence in Fresno will allow his group to hold policy-makers accountable for their actions.
The group has asked the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District not to volunteer for the nation's worst polluter category because it would stall improving the area's air quality.
They also want the board to arrange one evening meeting a month, to allow the public a chance to attend.
The Forum received a two-year grant from the California Endowment to establish itself in the Valley. It's partnering with Fresno Metro Ministry, the Family Health Care Network in Visalia and the United Farm Workers to advocate to local governments and educate Hispanics on issues such as asthma triggers and access to health care.
It also will train 30 high school students from Fresno and Tulare counties to organize members of the community and to influence policy-makers to make decisions that will benefit the area's environment.
"This will have a long-lasting ramification on bringing Latinos into the discussion, which I haven't heard of a lot before" in the Valley, said Larry Gonzales, program officer of the California Endowment.
Margarita Rocha, executive director for Centro La Familia Advocacy Services Inc., an organization for low-income families in Fresno, said advocacy and policy groups such as the Latino Issues Forum can bring attention to the area's unique needs and help it get more grants, most of which go to the southern and northern parts of the state.
"There isn't one organization that I'm aware of that can envision taking care of the needs that this community has," she said.
"There are a lot of things in this community that need to be done."
