What's New List Serve Post Display

CalEPA: Alex Barnum (916) 324-9670 (O)
OEHHA: Sam Delson (916) 324-0955 (O)
(916) 764-0955 (C)
. 

SACRAMENTO – State environmental officials today released a major
updated draft
version(http://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/report/calenviroscreen-30-draft)
 of the California Communities Environmental Health Screening
Tool (CalEnviroScreen) for public review and comment.

The California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) and the
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) will
hold two webinars and seven regional workshops this month on the
new updated version of the tool. The webinars will discuss the
proposed updates, and staff at the regional workshops will share
the proposed updates, answer questions, and take public comment.

“By identifying communities burdened by pollution and vulnerable
to its effects, CalEnviroScreen helps us prioritize our
activities and demonstrates our commitment to advancing
environmental justice,” said CalEPA Secretary Matthew Rodriquez.
“Ensuring all Californians have a voice in public processes is a
critical component of environmental justice, and I encourage all
interested Californians to participate in these workshops.”

The regional workshops will be held in Los Angeles, San
Bernardino, San Diego, Calexico, Oakland, Sacramento, and
Fresno.
The draft CalEnviroScreen 3.0 uses data on 20 indicators of
pollution, environmental quality, and socioeconomic and public
health conditions to calculate a score for each of the state’s
8,000 census tracts based on their overall pollution burdens and
vulnerabilities. The draft update adds newer data for all of the
indicators that have become available since the current version
of CalEnviroScreen was released in 2014. It also improves the way
some of the indicators are calculated.

The new draft adds two new indicators, which measure
rent-adjusted income and cardiovascular health. The rent-adjusted
income indicator shows the median income in each census tract
after subtracting costs for rental housing. The cardiovascular
health indicator shows the rate of visits to emergency
departments for treatment of heart attacks.  In addition, the age
indicator from earlier versions has been removed based on
concerns that its measure of populations of children and the
elderly in individual census tracts does not adequately represent
these vulnerable populations. The new version also incorporates
additional information on pollution along the California-Mexico
border.

 “We are committed to ensuring that updates to CalEnviroScreen
make best use of the available data to examine pollution and
population characteristics across the state,” said OEHHA Acting
Director Dr. Lauren Zeise.  “As we work to update
CalEnviroScreen, we would like to hear from as many Californians
as possible.”

The webinar and workshop dates, times, and locations are as
follows:
First Webinar
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
11:00 AM- 12:00 PM PT
Second Webinar
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
11:00 AM- 12:00 PM PT
Los Angeles
Wednesday, September 7, 6-8 PM
Junipero Serra State Building
320 West Fourth Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013 
San Bernardino
Thursday, September 8, 6-8 PM
5th Street Senior Center
600 W. 5th Street
San Bernardino, CA 92410
San Diego
Tuesday, September 13, 6-8 PM
Cesar E. Chavez Campus: San Diego Continuing Education
1901 Main Street
San Diego, CA 92113
Calexico
Wednesday, September 14, 6-8 PM
Carmen Durazo Cultural Arts Center
421 Heffernan St.
Calexico, CA 92231

Oakland 
Tuesday, September 20, 6-8 PM
Oakland Asian Cultural Center
388 9th St, Suite 290
Oakland, CA 94607
Sacramento 
Wednesday, September 21, 6-8 PM
Fruit Ridge Community Collaborative
4625 44th Street
Sacramento CA 95820
Fresno 
Thursday, September 22, 6-8 PM
Cecil C. Hinton Community Center
2385 S Fairview Avenue
Fresno, CA, 93706

Additional information about the webinars and workshops,
including optional registration and links for the webinars, is
available here:
http://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/public-comment-period-general-info/workshops-and-webinar-draft-calenviroscreen-30

Information about how to submit written comments is availble on
the CalEnviroScreen 3.0 draft page:
http://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/report/calenviroscreen-30-draft

OEHHA released the first version of CalEnviroScreen in 2013,
followed by an updated version in 2014. It is the nation’s first
comprehensive, statewide environmental health screening tool. It
is currently available in both English and Spanish.




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