Air-quality forum in West Oakland

Saturday, May 20, 10 am - 2 pm at Hoover Elementary School, 890 Brockhurst Street, Oakland.

The Sierra Club Northern Alameda County Group is sponsoring a community workshop and panel discussion on air pollution. We plan two featured speakers, two panel discussions, and time for questions and answers by audience members.

Featured speakers will be:

• Rajiv Bhatia, director, occupational and environmental health, San Francisco Department of Public Health;
• Karen Pierce, director, Bayview Hunters Point Advocates.

Topics include:

• what is air pollution?
• how and why is air pollution a problem in the East Bay and West Oakland?
• how does air pollution affect your health?
• how can we influence decision-makers?
• personal accounts by featured local activists.

Other panelists include:

• Brian Beveridge, West Oakland Environmental Indicators;
• Jack Broadbent, Bay Area Air Quality Management District;
• Meena Palaniappan, Pacific Institute;
• a representative of the Port of Oakland.

Shipping and trucking at the Port of Oakland pollute West Oakland air. We are putting on this event to move decision-makers to act to reduce air pollution. We want to draw local residents, especially from West and nearby North Oakland, into the political process. At the same time, we want to inform and educate - not just local residents, but anyone concerned - about air pollution: how it is measured, where it comes from, and what you can do about it.

Lunch will be provided.

If you wish to attend, we appreciate your RSVP.

How you can help

We are looking for volunteers to help with:

• distributing flyers in West Oakland to announce the event; we plan to walk the neighborhood on Friday afternoons, May 5 and May 12, or you can pick up flyers and deliver them on other days;
• serving lunch;
• staffing a table with Sierra Club information at the workshop - passing out flyers, and collecting names and contact information of potential volunteers;
• audio and computer tech - assisting with audio set-up (making sure mikes are working), possibly also computer set-up, before and during the event (you don't need to be an expert);
• video tech - recording the panel discussions with a camcorder; it's great if you can bring your own; otherwise we will provide one.

To RSVP, to volunteer, or for more information, contact Kent Lewandowski at kentlewan -at- yahoo.com or (510) 625-5831; or Margaret Gordon at margaretgordon -at- sbcglobal.net or (510) 251-1600, ext. 108.