CIR Doc Helps Find a Pollution Solution in LA Ports

June 2007

Dr. Shipra Bansal, CIR activist and Harbor-UCLA Family Medicine resident addresses a Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports rally. According to environmental advocates, each day the two LA-area ports send more pollutants into the air than half a million cars, a power plant,and a refinery combined.

Each year, more than forty percent of all goods imported into the U.S. move through the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. But with those goods comes Southern California’s greatest source of pollution – and markedly higher rates of asthma in the communities surrounding the ports.

A major source of this problem is the ports’ chaotic trucking system, which accounts for between 30 to 40% of the ports’ pollution and undergirds an exploitive labor system. Under the prevailing, unregulated system, approximately 600 fly-by-night trucking companies operate in the ports, classifying their drivers as “independent contractors” rather than employees. As a result, the companies can pass on the costs of fuel, insurance, licensing, and repairs to their drivers, and skirt the responsibility of ensuring that their trucks comply with the cleanest emissions standards. Most trucks currently do not meet these standards, because the cash-strapped drivers – who make little more than the minimum wage after fuel and other costs are deducted – can not afford the necessary maintenance and repairs with the pay they receive from the companies.

Additionally, because the trucking companies pay drivers a per-ride fee, and thus have no economic incentive to increase efficiency, trucks at the port spend a great amount of time idling in place, wasting fuel and causing unnecessary pollution. According to environmental estimates, port trucks spew nearly half of their total emissions while idle.

Enter the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports and CIR delegate Dr. Shipra Bansal, MD, a Family Medicine resident at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The Coalition unites truckers, environmentalists, labor unions, religious leaders, community groups, and public health advocates seeking ways to reduce port pollution. It proposed that the ports establish direct contractual relationships with the trucking companies, stipulating that companies ensure all trucks meet stringent emissions standards and that all drivers be official company employees, not independent contractors.

Dr. Bansal became involved after seeing evidence that port pollution was causing negative health effects in people living nearby, including “preliminary results of a survey done around the port community which showed asthma prevalence rates 1.5 times that of Los Angeles County.

“We know that air particulates 10 microns in diameter and smaller exacerbate asthma. Some data is now suggesting that they may actually cause asthma,” Dr. Bansal explained.

“I know of several asthmatics who developed more severe symptoms after moving into the area. Unfortunately, they are not able to move out, often for economic reasons,” she said, reflecting on her experience at Harbor-UCLA. She added that “medications are only a bandage if an asthmatic is constantly living in and breathing in pollution that exacerbates his condition.”

Dr. Bansal was a featured speaker at an early press conference and rally held by the coalition in the fall of 2006. According to Rafael Pizzaro, one of the leaders of the port campaign, “Dr. Bansal spoke up at a crucial point, when the port administration was not accepting how important a health issue this was to the community.”

Thanks to these coalition efforts, port administrators opened discussions with the Coalition and ultimately committed to reducing truck pollution. In April, the neighboring ports announced a joint “Clean Trucks Program,” which incorporated nearly all of the policy recommendations proposed by the port campaign. As the program is phased-in, the ports expect that within five years 80% of the trucks serving the ports will include new emission-restriction features making them 90% cleaner than the older model trucks making up the majority of the ports’ current trucking fleet.

Dr. Bansal is eager to continue working with coalition partners to reduce port pollution. “As doctors, we often see patients after much of the harm has been done,” she said. “If we want better health for our patients, we can be more effective when we look at the bigger picture and find out what is causing and exacerbating our patients' conditions.”

Visit the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports Website