Data Source

The data is CalEnviroScreen (CES) 4.0, which is used to identify the communities impacted by pollution exposure and its effects in California. It has indicators like health and socioeconomic status.It is maintained by the Office of Environmental Health Hazards Assessment (OEHHA), a branch of California’s EPA. Explore CES here: CES 4.0 website

Background

CalEnviroScreen is a mapping tool created by California EPA and it was first released in 2013. CES4.0 is the fourth iteration with of the initial data. The map is now interactive and includes expanded information on demographics, environmental and health data. The first tab is an overview and the second tab visualizes Ed Visits and Low Birthweight in each county. The map visualizing pollution and poverty provides valuable insights into the distribution of asthma and cardiovascular disease emergency department (ED) visits across counties. It highlights the spatial proximity of counties with low poverty rates to those with high poverty rates, offering a clear understanding of how these areas are geographically connected. This information is crucial for identifying trends and disparities, helping to inform targeted interventions and policy decisions aimed at improving public health outcomes in areas most affected by these conditions.

Table

The data used to graph the plots of Cardiovascular disease ED visits, Asthma ED visits and the Low Birthweight are tabulated for an overview.

Map of Pollution and Poverty in California

Mean PM 2.5 value in each California County

This graph plots the mean PM 2.5 values in the each county of California. Yellow and light green donates the highest levels of PM 2.5 in Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties.

Asthma ED Visits

From the above plot we can see that PM 2.5 pollution and in this plot we can see that poverty rate is also low in Solano county compared to Fresno, Kings, Kern and Tulare county but it still has the highest Ed visits because of Asthma in the state.

Cardiovascular Disease ED visits

For Cardiovascular disease related ED Visits there seems to be an association with rate of poverty in the county. The counties with higher poverty rate seem to have more ED visits for Cardiovascular complaints than the counties with lower poverty rate.

Low Birthweight incidence

The highest incidence of Low Birthweight in California is in the Siskiyou county whereas Alpine, Del Norte, Modoc Counties have no recorded incidence of Low Birthweight.