ACE: Building Power for Enviromental Justice

I found out about ACE yesterday.

Why is it important for you to know about ACE?

ACE's Mission: "ACE builds the power of communities of color and lower income communities in New England to eradicate environmental racism and classism and achieve environmental justice. We believe that everyone has the right to a healthy environment and to be decision-makers in issues affecting our communities."

If you're like me and believe we all deserve to live in a clean and healthy environment, please support ACE and make a donation here today.

To give you one example of what ACE is about. Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston and it's community is comprised of 95% low income African Americans. The elevated Orange Line train that used to go through Roxbury was torn down in 1987 and replaced by a bus service along Washington Street. The goverment promised the community a better replacement. The replacement never came. All those buses that replaced the train were run by Diesel fuel. As it turns out, Roxbury has the highest asthma rate in the city of Boston.

According to the Office of Enviromental Office Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) "Exposure to diesel exhaust can have immediate health effects. Diesel exhaust can irritate the eyes, nose, throat and lungs, and it can cause coughs, headaches, lightheadedness and nausea. In studies with human volunteers, diesel exhaust particles made people with allergies more susceptible to the materials to which they are allergic, such as dust and pollen. Exposure to diesel exhaust also causes inflammation in the lungs, which may aggravate chronic respiratory symptoms and increase the frequency or intensity of asthma attacks.

Diesel engines are a major source of fine-particle pollution. The elderly and people with emphysema, asthma, and chronic heart and lung disease are especially sensitive to fine-particle pollution. Numerous studies have linked elevated particle levels in the air to increased hospital admissions, emergency room visits, asthma attacks and premature deaths among those suffering from respiratory problems. Because children's lungs and respiratory systems are still developing, they are also more susceptible than healthy adults to fine particles. Exposure to fine particles is associated with increased frequency of childhood illnesses and can also reduce lung function in children."

This is just a small example of how certain government polices can have a major impact in the overall health of a community. People don't realize that a simple change in something as mundane as your daily transportation, can pollute the air and have harmful long term effects for entire communities. So...

This is what ACE has done to help:

1. In March 2002, ACE and its partners won 100 clean fuel buses in regional transportation plan. They publicly launched a Transportation Justice and Livable Communities agenda and forced the regional transportation planning body to add a $40 million project for 100 additional clean fuel buses in its 25-year plan.

2. ACE and its partners pushed Massachusetts to enact its first Environmental Justice Policy. After more than 2 years of pressure from ACE and its partners, Secretary Of Environment Robert Durand passed an Environmental Justice Policy in October 2002. This policy reorients all of the state's environmental agencies to increase outreach, involvement, and resources to environmental justice communities and provides for heightened scrutiny in environmental impact reviews.

3. ACE and its partners successfully persuaded the MA Department of Environmental Protection to install a comprehensive air monitoring station in the Dudley Square area. After years of raising awareness of high asthma rates and the dangers of diesel bus and truck exhaust, residents will now have a new tool in their fight for environmental justice. ACE's youth interns are helping to build 24-hour access to the data from this monitoring site through a telephone hotline and website.

So, to you I say...

These are only a few of ACE's major achievements since it was founded in 1993. I believe ACE is an essential organization. It is a sad reality, organizations like ACE need to exist in order to advocate for the low income minorities communities. I wonder, How is it that these diesel buses are not running in the financial district? or Brookline Village?

If you're like me and believe we all deserve to live in a clean and healthy environment no matter what, please support ACE and make a donation here today.