EcoGov Lab
The Disaster-STS Network links researchers from around the world working to understand, anticipate and respond to disaster, fast and slow.
05/10/2022
On Oct. 1, we partnered with Torrance Refinery Action Alliance and GREEN - Getting Residents Engaged in Empowering Neighborhoods to host a "toxic tour" of refineries in Torrance & Wilmington–the only two in California that use modified hydrogen fluoride (MHF), one of the world’s most dangerous chemicals–located right next to several schools. If released, HF forms a ground-hugging aerosol cloud that drifts for miles, potentially causing mass casualties. A "near miss" happened in 2015. Several schools and neighbourhoods nearby could be impacted. Schools have been told to shelter-in-place and to duct tape windows, doors, and vents. But that is woefully inadequate. For Sandra Silva, a member of GREEN - Getting Residents Engaged in Empowering Neighborhoods and of EcoGov Lab's Community Research Board, the tour provoked conversations between community leaders and organizers fighting chemical hazards in Santa Ana, Torrance, & Wilmington. City and environmental officials need to act on chemical hazards in Torrance, Wilmington, and Santa Ana NOW.
This is an especially important time for this work. In August 2022, the US Environmental Protection Agency released for public comment a new rule, “Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention Proposed Rule.” The rule has been widely criticized for failing to make communities safe.
Read our press release here: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/fortunlab/2022/10/04/torrance-toxic-tour/
02/03/2022
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