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Renwu is a part of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, where there are large factories making chemical products. Renwu Elementary School is very close to these factories, just 500 meters away. The school has been actively engaged in discussions about how to improve the environment and promote prosperity for everyone. Approximately 80% of the students at the school have asthma, a respiratory condition. Recognizing the challenges of improving the environment around the school, some students and teachers decided to explore ways to improve the air quality within the school. The students did a few things: first, they used low-cost sensors and single-board computers to make regular air purifiers work better. When levels for air pollution (PM 10 and PM 2.5) are high, these gadgets turn on the air purifiers in many classrooms. This air purifier project is one of three ongoing educational programs aimed at educating students about air pollution and its potential health impacts. In art class, students use paper mache to design their own air purifiers to save money. Using magnifying glasses for tablets and smartphones, they explore which materials work best for air filtration. In parallel, they began collecting air pollution data over time using a digital system developed by the students themselves. They also used hand-held monitors outside to measure pollution levels around a major chemical factory operated by Formosa Plastics, a large petrochemical company. It is worth noting that Formosa Plastics is currently planning to expand its production facilities in Texas and Louisiana, which would also affect air quality in nearby schools. The monitoring and data collection by the Renwu students could inspire others in different places to do something similar about air pollution in their own communities. 

Schütz, Tim, Jia-An Lin & Yu-Hsin Hsu. 2023. "DIY Air Monitoring at Renwu Elementary School in Kaohsiung, Taiwan." In 4S Paraconference X EiJ: Building a Global Record, curated by Misria Shaik Ali, Kim Fortun, Phillip Baum and Prerna Srigyan. Annual Meeting of the Society of Social Studies of Science. Honolulu, Hawai'i, Nov 8-11.

Industrial meatpacking plants in countries all over the world (USA, Germany, Australia) have all become hotspots of COVID-19 (Link). 

The close proximity in which workers working in such plants, the gruelling hours, the lack of access to healthcare among workers (many of whom are immigrants, refugees and POCs), are all reasons why such plants have emerged as hotspots. This Propublica article talks about the amont of preparation that such an industry has for pandemic flu outbreaks that could wipe out animals, but failed to do the same for their workers (Link). Moreover, our desire of meat (bad for the environment and unsustainable), has resulted in these companies having a tremendous amount of clout which allowed some to go over the heads of local officials as the ProPublica article reports. 

A well publicised Harvard study reported an association between long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and COVID-19 deaths (Link). Another recent study that consider multiple pollutants found a signficiant association between nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a traffic-related pollutant and COVID-19 deaths, and not PM2.5 (Link).

Air pollution and COVID-19 have intersected in other ways. The decreases in air pollution due to the lockdown were seen as one of the few silver linings of the crisis (Link). Although early optimism has been dashed as air pollution levels have jumped right back up in China (Link) and other places when the lockdown was lifted. Some may say that under the cover of COVID-19, the Trump administration also rolled back several environmental regulations (Link), and it is unclear yet what the long-term effects of such rollbacks will be.

Air pollution is also a carrier of COVID-19 (Link), and researchers have been investigating the transmission of the virus by simulating mundane activities such as speaking in the elevator and even flushing a toilet.

Some of the other ways however, in which air pollution and COVID-19 will intersect are at infrastructure such as warehouses, which we will see increase as more and more people move to shopping online. Already in the recent pasts of the building of massive warehouses have been challenged for environmental justice reasons, as they tend to be built in poor, minority communities and result in heavy freight traffic, which in turn burdens such communities with increased pollution (Link1, Link2). Amazon employees themselves have documented the nature of siting of warehouses (Link), and it is likely to become an even more fraught site of contention as we move forward.

This organizations aims to provide a support system for returning veterans, more specifically to ensure access to any type of medical support they may need and assist them in readapting to society after extended periods of time in the military.

The organization membership includes two subsets, first the organization membership includes any and all active serviceman, veterans, and limited membership for their families. The other portion of membership includes administrators, doctors, and public health workers who work to provide the services needed.

This organization does not respond to disasters, but rather provides long term assistance to members of the military and their families. The issues faced by veterans, both medical and social, are often chronic and require a lifetime of support. This is in a way a constant emergency for them and their families, and the US Department of Veteran Affairs aims to provide the necessary support.

The US Department of Veteran Affairs is constantly adjusting to new medical research to provide the most effective care possible. This shows a differing approach to emergency response which is only possible due to the long term nature of this organization, most emergency response groups focus on quick response to disasters which does not allow for the same amount of research and adaptation as the Department of Veteran Affairs.

The US government is motivated by both the social necessity of reintegrating thousands of active military servicemen every year, and the responsibility of supporting the veterans who sacrificed for this country.

The organization is fully funded by the government, which is funded itself by taxes. This in part effects their work as it creates a responsibility to be careful with funding and ensure that the care goes directly to those in need. It also requires the organization to be held accountable to the citizens who are funding their efforts.

The organization does have extensive data collected from its members on the number of veterans, what kinds of injuries they are facing, and the level of success in rehabilitation among other topics.