By James Baggett
Students from Professor Ken Laundra's Environmental Sociology class immersed themselves in the affects of pollution in urban areas during the Environmental Plunge. The class traveled to California's Bay Area during fall break for first-hand experience on issues of environmental justice, specifically environmental racism.
"You really have to see and smell these places to fully grasp the effects of exposure to toxic environments," Laundra said.
And that's just what the students did.
"I knew these things were happening, but this trip really brought things to light for me," junior Anthony Cassino said.
Staying in a hostel in the heart of San Francisco's rough-and-tumble Tenderloin district, the group met with representatives from four grassroots organizations, all of which focus on some aspect of local environmental problems.
One such group was People's Grocery, based in Oakland. This organization strives to offer healthy food choices to impoverished West Oakland. With a population of around 30,000, West Oakland, which is 77 percent African-American, lacks a single grocery store. Instead, residents buy food from the multitude of liquor stores in the area, which double as convenience stores, or residents eat at fast-food restaurants.
People's Grocery offers organic, sustainable and affordable produce from a mobile marketplace, a van that stops at designated areas in West Oakland twice a week. The produce comes from a two-acre farm in Sunol, Calif., located just outside of San Francisco.
It is on this farm that Laundra's class offered its services. The class harvested fresh peppers, watermelons, pumpkins, tomatoes and squash, planted garlic and pulled weeds for the small operation, run by Farm Manager Jason Uribe.
Uribe relies heavily on groups such as the one from UP to fulfill all the necessary work on the farm. He is the only full-time employee, and, besides volunteer organizations, another employee and a student intern help Uribe only part-time.
The group also visited Breast Cancer Action (BCA) in San Francisco. BCA uses policy initiatives and education campaigns to advance breast cancer research and awareness.
Continuing with the trip's theme of environmental justice, BCA Community Organizer Pauli Ojea lectured the group on environmental factors that are known or suspected to increase the risk of breast cancer. Notable factors include the use of oral contraceptives, chemicals present in pesticides and herbicides and certain types of solvents used in a variety of household products, from food packaging to electronics.
The information from Ojea's lecture was founded from an annual report made available to the students that investigates the connections between the environment and breast cancer.
According to the report, jointly funded by BCA and the San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Fund, the lifetime risk of breast cancer has increased to one in eight women. North America has higher rates than any other country, with other highly industrialized regions rounding out the top of the list, including Western Europe and Australia. Africa and South Asia show the lowest breast cancer rates.
Also on the trip, the class took driving tours of areas beset by high pollution levels due to industrial activity. One such area was the predominantly black Bayview Hunter's Point neighborhood in southeast San Francisco.
The class followed Marie Harrison of Greenaction For Health and the Environment, a longtime resident of Bayview, on a "toxic tour," through the highly polluted neighborhood. Greenaction is an environmental advocacy group that seeks to promote environmental justice by mobilizing affected communities to fight governmental and corporate practices.
On the tour, the first stop for the UP students was a wastewater treatment plant, the Southeast Water Pollution Control Plant, which, according to Harrison, processed 86 percent of all the sewage in San Francisco.
"Witnessing the contamination that so many impoverished people live daily in, mostly poor minority groups, was absolutely shocking," Laundra said.
The class saw a deserted building that housed the construction of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan in 1945. According to Harrison, the hazardous waste from the building of the bombs was sunk in the San Francisco Bay, where it remains.
Just up the hill from this hazardous site sat a school. Heavy machinery leveled the land above the site for a new housing development.
"Greenaction showed me a practical way of applying what I learned in class concerning dangerous pollution levels in low-income areas," senior James O'Keefe said.
Many students complained of burning eyes and throats while in the Bayview Hunter's Point neighborhood.
"When I got back to the hostel, it was like I had smoked a cigarette," Cassino said.
The class ended its trip with another "toxic tour," a trip through Richmond, Calif., where Chevron holds a large petroleum refinery. Richmond is 36 percent black and 27 percent Hispanic. It is also the largest city in the nation with a Green Party mayor.
This tour was led by Jessica Tovar, community organizer for Communities for a Better Environment, a grassroots organization with similar aspirations as Greenaction.
Tovar showed students views of a 2,500-acre Chevron oil refinery, which has been the subject of controversy between the oil corporation and the residents of Richmond.
In 1993 and 1999, explosions from the plant caused toxic fumes to flood the atmosphere of the area, sending thousands to the hospital.
A toxic waste landfill located beside the refinery was fined $725,000 this week for flaws in its system to prevent leaks into the San Francisco Bay.
This landfill holds batteries, mercury thermometers, refrigerants and other dangerous chemicals.
Though Tovar said the landfill was supposed to have been shut down, students saw trucks filled with waste come and go.
Students agree that the experience brought by this trip augmented the course.
"This was easily the most applicable and eye-opening thing I've done while at UP," O'Keefe said. "It's solidified my desire to work for a grassroots organization, seeing how beneficial they can be," he said.
