A couple of young activists visit the Continental Army Plaza park and show a device that measures air pollution. The results are alarming.
Jazmín Morales is the Art and Culture coordinator at the community organization El Puente: “The pollution levels here are 2 to 6 times higher than the national acceptable level.”
And it is that the levels of smog and pollutants are so high in the south of Williamsburg and Bushwick that the records place them within the 10 most polluted areas of the city.
Morales shows, within his office in El Puente, the results obtained during a year and ensures that these levels could have caused an increase in cases of people with asthma.
“Because of the poor air quality, this community already had a high incidence of asthma and these chronic diseases, but at the beginning of the pandemic this has been one of the communities that have been most affected,” Morales explains.
For this study, the organization used neighbors and students who during a year measured the levels of particles in the air. This was also a community education project.
Azucena Mendoza is a practitioner in El Puente: “I was worried that children come here and that this could worsen their chances of surviving the coronavirus. That was what worried me a lot.”
According to some activists, the multiple constructions of residential buildings have increased the number of people in the area and generated air pollution.
Situation that worries several residents of the area: “With the epidemic and with the importance that is in the air, it is a danger for many people,” one of them commented.
That is why this organization asks elected leaders to create programs that analyze the environmental impact of new housing units and pollutant mitigation strategies.
Visit the NY1 News page with our special coverage on the coronavirus: Coronavirus outbreak
– .
