People in Pueblo are at the forefront of an emerging partnership between activists, conservationists and a newly created state unit to quantify environmental justice hotspots in Colorado communities and the toxic pollutants that bedevil them.
asthma
Posted inClimate, Environment, Health, News, Wildfire
Smoke from faraway wildfires may be worse for Coloradans than if it came from blazes in their own backyards
For long stretches of the summer the Front Range has been bathed in smoke traveling hundreds of miles from California and Oregon wildfires and it turns out that long-range smoke could be more dangerous than the fumes from homegrown forest fires. Some initial studies have shown that long-range smoke may be more toxic and since […]
Posted inColoradans, Environment, Health
Air pollution, asthma rates in Colorado’s San Luis Valley are a growing concern
Asthma-inducing poor air quality is most often associated with industry- and car-heavy Front Range cities. Or in a dry summer like 2020, smaller towns suffocating in wildfire smoke. Hours of driving away from Colorado’s biggest cities, though, the San Luis Valley has a growing asthma problem of its own, likely inflated by climate change. Winds […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Health, News, Opinion, Politics and Government
Opinion: Is your neighborhood raising your risk? Redlining set Denver communities up for more coronavirus danger
Vicente Arenas moved to the edge of Denver’s Valverde neighborhood, attracted by low housing prices and proximity to his downtown job just three miles away. The 1-square-mile neighborhood mixes small, ranch-style homes with auto body shops, metal fabricators and industrial supply warehouses, and is hemmed in on its four sides by state highways and interstates. […]
Posted inOpinion, Write On, Colorado
The coronavirus wasn’t my problem. And then came the onset of symptoms.
I’d been one of the lucky ones during the COVID-19 pandemic. I don’t know anyone who has tested positive, and I’d remained healthy throughout the last few months. Honestly, COVID-19 started to feel like a far-off media story that wasn’t impacting my community. At the same time, Colorado was about to hit 28,000 cases. So […]