Contributor: For water and mining policy near the Salton Sea, remember the health of local children

Southern California’s Salton Sea was once a tourist playground, with sunny beaches, celebrities and surfers on the great inland lake in the 1950s and ’60s.

Today, those resorts are long gone, replaced by a drying and increasingly toxic landscape. As the lake shrinks, wind blowing across the open surface of the lake kicks up toxic dust left by years of agricultural chemicals and metals that wash into the lake. That dust enters the lungs of the children of the Royal Village.

New research from our team of epidemiologists at USC and UC Irvine, shows that inhaling dust impairs lung development in children in the area – especially those living near the Salton Sea. In fact, the effects on lung function near the Salton Sea were greater than those found in studies in urban California communities near busy roads.

As the lake’s water resources are depleted due to water use agreements along the Colorado River, and as the region gains more industrial activity from proposed lithium extractionair pollution is likely to be worse.

The Salton Sea — California’s largest inland lake at more than 340 square miles — has been shrinking for decades. It was created by a break in a canal that carries water from the Colorado River in the early 1900s. Flowing irrigation from the farms kept it going. But over the past two decades, declining water flows have exposed 36,000 new acres of dry lakebed.

The Colorado River’s largest consumer of water, the Imperial County Irrigation District, agreed in 2003 to sacrifice billions of gallons of water annually to support growing urban areas — a plan that went into full effect in 2018. That meant less flow in the lake. On average, the change was thought to increase airborne dust by 40 to 80 tons per day. Satellite images show the rapid expansion of the exposed lake as the water recedes.

Low-income Latino communities living just south of the Salton Sea say they have long been overlooked in discussions about the fate of the Sea. However, these communities are facing real health consequences directly linked to the region’s water policy choices and the lack of action to control this emerging environmental problem.

In 2017, we started group study and more than 700 children attending primary school in five towns in the northern part of the Imperial Valley. We followed these children over several years, recording respiratory health markers and lung function measurements, in addition to household, lifestyle and behavioral factors.

Our initial findings are consistent with what local residents have been discussing for years:

• About 1 in 5 children in the northern Imperial Valley is reported to have asthma – much higher than the national rate.
• Higher levels of air pollution were linked to worse respiratory health reported, such as wheezing and wheezing, among all children. That shows that while children with asthma were more sensitive, children without asthma also had significant health effects.
• High levels of dust exposure, especially among those children who live near the ocean, are associated with poor lung function, and decreased lung growth in children over time.

These findings are concerning because lung damage, lung dysfunction and respiratory disease in childhood can increase the risk of chronic health problems in adulthood.

Children’s lungs are still developing, and lung function continues to mature throughout the teenage years, making children more susceptible to the adverse effects of air pollution than adults.

Children also have a higher respiratory rate than adults, and a larger lung area relative to their body size, resulting in higher levels of pollutants per breath. And because children tend to spend more time outdoors than adults and are involved in more physical activity, they may be more exposed to outdoor air pollution.

For years, community members have raised concerns about high rates of asthma and poor respiratory health among children and residents.

The new evidence is important as communities and organizations like the Comito Civico del Valle push for projects that can reduce the amount of Salton dust entering the air, increase education about asthma management and increase access to health care.

The children in the study had just started primary school when they joined. Now in high school, this generation grew up near the Salton Sea. Many have experienced asthma and may face chronic health problems.

Having seen these results among children living near the Salton Sea, we believe that protecting local air quality is important to the health of children in the Imperial Valley. Their lives must be a priority as the public and private sectors plan future water changes, dredging projects and other developments along the Salton Sea.

Jill Johnston is associate professor of environmental and occupational health at UC Irvine. Shohreh Farzan is an associate professor of population and public health at USC. This article was produced in partnership with The Conversation.