By Newsdesk.org __ This is the reality that West Oakland residents have been living with for years. And while incremental changes have been made on both state and local levels, including the port's current Comprehensive Truck Management Plan, many feel that significant improvements are still a long way off. "There's a lot of talk. People talk about how 'this needs to be done, we're going to do this'" says Shirley Burnell, a community activist and Co-Director of West Oakland Acorn, "but still things are being pushed out. Instead of doing something today or tomorrow or next week we're still talking years." Disraeli Hives knows hazards associated with living in this community for years. The 41 year old mother was born and raised in West Oakland and has seen the poor air quality has effect her family for 3 generations. Both Hives and her mother have been diagnosed with asthma, as have 8 of her 10 children. The family is on a regular rotation of inhalers and respiratory pumps and Ms. Hives only recently started breathing without the use of an oxygen tank. "It's hard, you know, dealing with it and having to take care of the kids and get their medications and worrying about (asthma) on top of everything else" she explains. Hives estimates that approximately 70 percent of the children living on her block have some form of respiratory illness. But getting regular care has proven to be another uphill battle for these families, many of whom rely on public transportation for everything from daily commutes to doctor's visits. "A lot of kids down here got asthma and their parents can't afford to afford to buy a new car, or a used car for that matter, so they're on foot or catching buses and you know how long you got to sit at the AC Transit." Nurse Mary Frazier of the Prescott Joseph Center has seen how the dearth of accessible health care contributes to larger social issues. "How long does it take for you to get to Kaiser from here or to the Children's Hospital or Highland (by bus)" she asks. "It's an all day outing, so you lose time at work, kids lose time at school, the kids don't get good grades in school, you lose your job, so it's part of this cycle of the diseases of poverty-like diabetes, obesity, asthma and respiratory problems." This cyclical pattern is what inspired activists like Ms. Burnell to champion environmental causes, after initially focusing on other social concerns like job security. "After I got involved I saw that it wasn't just the jobs it was the environment, and that needed to be cleaned up because so many people have asthma so even if you do have jobs you're sick all the time" Burnell says. "In an area like here, in West Oakland, the low economic status of the residents has a bearing" explained Dr. Washington Burns, Prescott Joseph's Executive Director. Burns and other organizers have found that auxiliary issues including violence, drug use, lack of jobs and the general stress of day to day survival are all intertwined. "I'm not saying that air quality isn't a factor but there are multiple factors." The Prescott Joseph Center, Acorn, the EIP and several other organizations have been working across multiple platforms to address the tangled web of health concerns. The center is home to one of the only clinics in the area and also hosts the West Oakland Asthma Coalition, a network of community groups that address health concerns at both the grassroots and policy levels. Some initiatives, like the soon to be certified Breathmobile, deliver services directly to the community, while groups like the EIP focus on providing hard data and policy advice while others like the Bamboo BioFilter project, take a more experimental approach to solving the problem. And while there are challenges, there is also measured optimism. Most of those involved in the fight for a healthy West Oakland understand they are part of a long battle involving community awareness and responsibility as much as regulation and research statistics. "We're a strong community" says Ms. Hives. "we been through a lot but we're going to be here. We're going to keep fighting."
