Community Impacts
:
Hricko. Andrea."Global Trade Comes Home: Community Impacts of Goods Movement.," Environmental Health Feb2008, accessed October 5,2014,

This article focuse on the airpollution and the impacts on the community residents in Long Beach.
It shined light on the idea that the government and society as a whole focuses more on electronics, toys and fancy items versus their health. It is very common for indivdivauls toe aware of the latest gadget that has come out versus the impact pollution and toxicticy will have on the their lives. This in itself speaks volumes on the way we value our health. The article touches bases on the trucks,trains and warhouses near residential areas. Indivudals whom live close to these routes that truck drivers must take in order to get to their appropriate location, are constantly being exposed to vechile emissions that causes serious halth problems. Forty percent of all imports in the Unted States come from the ports in Long beach and Los Angeles. This massive percentage plays a large part in the health threats that residence living near the ports experience. Much less attention has focused on air pollution and other community-level impacts in the United States, as toys, electronics, * food, and other imports travel through ports, then to trucks, trains, warehouses, and stores in a complex system called “goods movement.” Along the route, residents are exposed to diesel exhaust and other vehicle emissions, noise from truck-congested roads, bright lights from round-the-clock operations, and other potential health threats. ex- Cabrillo apartments * Transportation experts refer to these impacts simply as “externalities” of transport, but to community residents they can directly harm the quality of daily life. * With more than 40% of all imports for the entire United States coming through the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the ports are critical to the national economy. In 2005, CARB issued guidelines that recommend avoiding construction of new schools and homes within a mile of a railyard or 500 feet of a busy highway. A few years earlier, California legislators, citing health effects research findings, passed SB 352, a law prohibiting building new schools within 500 feet of a busy road or freeway. But the 2003 law permits several loopholes, such as allowing a school district to show that it is able to mitigate traffic emissions so that pupils and staff will suffer no significant health risk. * Many groups impacted by ports and goods movement came together in late 2007 at Moving Forward, the first North American community-oriented gathering on this topic, which was organized by THE Impact Project and cosponsored by private groups along with NIEHS- and EPA-funded centers. Participants shared information on current health research related to goods movement, community concerns about health impacts, future goods movement expansion projects (such as plans to deepen the harbor at the Port of Savannah, Georgia, to handle largerships carrying twice as many containers). * As far as health effects go, however, research findings and community experience are strongly suggesting that global trade, while an apparent boon to our economy, will continue to pose a serious threat to our population’s environmental health unless protective and collective action is taken, and soon.