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Dr. Cheney is attempting to answer the following question: What can we learn from the residents about their experience in living with asthma, and can this help us understand the disease?

There are very few hospitals in the area around the Salton Sea--only two in Imperial County and three in the Coachella Valley.

• In 2003, the Imperial Irrigation District signed the Quantification Settlement Agreement, in which they transferred the water from agricultural runoff that formerly fed the Salton Sea to supply municipalities in Southern California. The agreement kept water flowing into the lake until 2018 in order to give time to come up with ways to mitigate environmental effects of the lake's desiccation. These solutions have not materialized.
• UCR scientists are collecting dust for microbial analysis

• Increased salinity
• Waterfowl dieoffs
• Desiccation produces toxic dust that blows
• Childhood asthma and other respiratory conditions
• 15% of Imperial County residents have asthma
• wind-blown dust can act as a pathway for microbes, fungi, and viruses to enter lungs by attaching to dust particles
• Municipal sewage from Mexicali
• Waste from prisons

The "Disparities in Environmental Exposures and Health Impacts" project has four goals:

1. To establish a community advisory board to provide local stakeholder input;
2. To identify spatial patterns and trends in population exposure and in pollutant transport;
3. To distribute particle collectors at sites that represent the range of sources of particulate matter and to identify the elemental and biological composition of particles;
4. To use environmental chamber exposure studies to develop a protocol for monitoring pulmonary inflammation impacts of aerosol particulates identified from the particle collectors.

• The state of California is responsible for implementing and paying for environmental mitigation projects
• The Colorado River flows through multiple states and countries--all have a stake in extra-local actions

New and Alamo Rivers - transboundary movement

• Investors who left in the first half of the 20th century
• Residents who remained in the area (highly Latinx)
• Labor exploitation, especially of immigrants through programs like the Bracero program
• Indigenous groups - especially the Torres Martinez, 40% of whose land is underneath the Salton Sea
• Agriculture
• Historically not identified as an unwanted land use, which allowed farmers to get away with more than other industries

This film focuses on the environmental and social problem of having large gas (lethal) plants near cities or other populated areas where people can be harmed. Environmentally these gasses are no good because they are emitted into the air and are very soluble in the water which leads to ocean acidification. Ocean acidification makes it so that the ocean has a lower pH level, this can harm marine wildlife. Socially, the gas is toxic to people and as seen in the Bhopal tragedy, it can kill people or severely alter their lives. This could be seen through the immediate deaths of civilians, deformities of children born after the incident, and the families affected even years after hoping for justice.

From watching the video, I feel affected emotionally because it was definitely hard to watch so many people die, especially the innocent children. It is a hard pill to swallow to watch the lives of so many people taken away from them so unexpectedly in their own homes. I feel affected by seeing the photo of the unknown child because it was hauntingly touching as it was for so many people that advocated for justice after this tragedy. It was also really daunting seeing so many people being buried and burned in mass because they were not granted the ability to be respectfully honored for their death which I think is something very valuable. Intellectually I think that this film made me think about how this tragedy could have been possibly prevented if the plant had been maintained and checked up on regularly or if the plant wasn’t so close to a whole city in the first place. And I also feel gratitude to those who are still advocating for justice for the victims and trying to get people with government power to make that change.