During the school year, 1999-2000, the COEP spoke 6 times in the Wilson High School Transportation Academy's senior projects class.

The Wilson High School Transportation Academy senior projects class students are working on issues that will improve their community by building models and monuments; the COEP is helping them understand the importance of environmental health concerns in the designs. A student from this program has produced a multimedia presentation with the COEP on environmental health concerns in El Sereno, where the high school is located. (See KICK Asthma LA, below). The COEP presentations have included information on how to investigate concerns in your community, the role of GIS modelling in public health, the health effects of dense traffic, the role of indoor allergens in the exacerbation of asthma. Presentations arranged by the COEP have included the COEP Director Andrea Hricko, Center member Pablo Cicero-Fernandez, and members of the Sustainable Cities Program at USC.

The COEP hosted two booths at a Health Fair at Bravo Medical Magnet High School in March 2000.

The COEP has been assisting Boyle Heights neighbors in their quest to learn more about the health effects of noise and diesel exhaust exposure from trucks in their neighborhood.

The COEP is involved in several Asthma and Air Pollution (both indoor and outdoor) Awareness Efforts with local communities. These are listed below:

• K.I.C.K. Asthma L.A.
• La Casa

"Larry Mantle's Air Talk" - KPCC radio broadcast on Children's Environmental Health (segment with Dr. James Gauderman). To order tapes of the full series go to KPCC's website.

used with permission of KPCC

Center members authored 3 chapters of the Southern California Health Atlas, including ones on air pollution, ocean water pollution, and cancer incidence. The Atlas describes, in lay terms, some of the leading health concerns in Southern California.

The COEP worked with the Southern California Studies Center to publicize the Atlas; more than 38 news outlets in 8 Southern California counties carried prominent stories. See our chapter on Air Pollution and Children's Health.

Six thousand children from 12 Southern California communities have participated in the Children's Health Study on air pollution, being conducted by Center investigators. In 1999, the study team, with the assistance of the COEP, distributed a newsletter to parents of all the children, describing the latest results in lay terms.

The COEP and Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) jointly sponsored workshops for health care providers on environmental health issues in 1999.

The COEP also co-sponsored and played a key role in organizing continuing education programs with CBE for community health care providers in April, 1997. The program was entitled "Protecting our Community from Environmental and Occupational Health Hazards." The sessions focused on the prevention and medical management of lead poisoning and asthma, with an emphasis on risks to both workers and community residents. The environmental justice component focused on: proximity to industry, heavy traffic volume, indoor and outdoor air pollution, and lead hazards. The workshops reached more than 75 health care providers, primarily physicians and community health nurses. Drs. Craig Jones and John Peters played key roles.