An unjust, broken port trucking system is a major source of the dirty air creating an environmental and public health crisis in the San Pedro Bay -- and the trucking industry is aggressively lobbying to preserve the deadly status quo. Among those affected are many of the 16,000 truck drivers and their families who live in the mostly low-income harbor neighborhoods. The statistics show why we need a strong Clean Trucks Program to clean the air, create good jobs, and promote healthy communities – now:

Pollution Kills

• Pollution from goods movement causes more than 2,400 premature deaths annually in California.
• Each year more Californians die from inhaling diesel fumes than are murdered.
• Residents of the mostly low income harbor communities suffer from life-threatening diseases like asthma, bronchitis, cancer, and heart disease.

Children too sick to learn, parents too sick to work

• California children suffering from pollution-related illnesses miss 1.1 million days of school each year.
• Their parents miss 360,000 work days annually for the same reasons.

Asthma is a Public Health Crisis

• In Long Beach, the percentage of children with asthma (17%) is almost twice as high as in the rest of the United States.
• Asthma sends more children to the hospital than any other disease. Often, kids with asthma are forced to go without adequate care.
• It costs $1.3 billion each year to pay for hospitalization and medication for adults and children suffering from asthma.

Our Children Face the Greatest Risk

• Children suffer more from the harmful effects of pollution, because their immune systems are sensitive, and because they spend more time outside.
• Latino and African American children, many of whom live in communities surrounding the ports, are at a greater risk for asthma.