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Particulate Matter: Impacts

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Rules and Regulations for PM + Impacts

Public concern regarding air quality issues was brought to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s (NJDEP) attention on many occasions. For instance, in 2010, environmental groups and government agencies raised a number of issues through lawsuits and petitions for reassessments of the rules pertaining to air quality standards.

In response to several petitions formed by these groups and agencies, the EPA validated new amendments to the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Stationary Internal Combustion Engines (RICE) on Jan. 14, 2013. These amendments address public concerns regarding cost effectiveness, achievability, and protectiveness of both people and the environment. These finalized amendments require the use of cleaner fuel, such as ultralow sulfur Diesel (ULSD), as opposed to Diesel fuel, which will contribute to reducing the risks of particulate matter (PM) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions.

According to environmental engineer, Bill Etherington, who specializes in Diesel Inspection and Innovative Strategies for the NJDEP, the health effects of particulate matter emissions from engines fueled by Diesel is an important issue for all New Jersey citizens.

As confirmed by Dr. Nicky Sheats, Dr. Etherington also stated that Diesel powered engines, powering both on-road vehicles and off-road equipment, tend to be concentrated in the urban environments. He states that the Bureau of Mobile Sources regulates the emissions from both on-road vehicles and off-road equipment.

Referring to the NJDEP page on air toxicity, (http://www.nj.gov/dep/airtoxics/njatp.htm), the Air Toxics Steering Committee (ATSC) was formed in 1987. The primary purpose of the committee was to collaborate with other agencies and representatives of various NJDEP programs, all of whom were dealing with different issues pertaining to air quality.
Additionally, the agencies participating in the air quality program also represent the Office of Science; Air Compliance and Enforcement; Office of Policy and Planning; Environmental Justice Program; Office of Local Environmental Management; Office of Pollution Prevention and Right to Know; and the Department of Health. Even today, the Steering Committee continues to meet on a regular basis, to analyze the air toxicity problem in New Jersey, address qualitative matters, and to develop strategies of prevention.

Subsequently, the USEPA established annual and 24-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM2.5 in 1997, and then revised them in 2006. The states are required to establish programs that will help them meet the air quality standards. On December 18, 2007, New Jersey submitted its recommendation of nonattainment areas in New Jersey to the USEPA. Then on December 26, 2012, the State of New Jersey requested to re-delegate the New Jersey portion of the nonattainment area, with emissions inventories from New York to New Jersey to Connecticut.

In response to this, the NJDEP proposed a revised protection plan for the areas as a SIP revision to ensure continued air quality attainment. In a supplemental submission to EPA on May 3, 2013, the State of New Jersey submitted NH3 and VOC emissions inventories to supplement. Specific details regarding EPA’s analysis of New Jersey’s SIP can be found in the proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on June 27, 2013.

In regards to this proposal, EPA received supportive feedback from two sources. There are no known opposing sources on the matter.

Incidentally, as indicated by the information on the NJDEP’s Stop the Soot site (http://www.nj.gov/dep/stopthesoot/), Dr. Etherington gave some brief insight on the bureau’s activities. The site provides basic details on:

• The Diesel Inspection and Maintenance (I/M) Program: requires annual and periodic roadside emission inspections of diesel powered on-road vehicles. The Diesel I/M program was established by law in 1995.
• The Mandatory Diesel Retrofit Program (directed by the Diesel Retrofit Law): requires installation of particulate emission control devices on vehicles such as school buses, commercial buses, publicly owned or publicly contracted solid waste collection vehicles (trash trucks), and publicly owned on-road vehicles and off-road equipment ( all vehicles certified by the USEPA).
• Voluntary Diesel Demonstration Projects: involves installation of emission reduction devices on on-road vehicles and off-road equipment.
• Vehicle Idling Restrictions for both diesel and gasoline powered vehicles.
• The New Jersey Clean Construction Program: establishes a program to install pollution control devices on off-road construction equipment used on selected N.J. Department of Transportation (NJDOT) construction projects.

Altogether, these rules and regulations have received mostly positive feedback; especially in regards to the Diesel Retrofit program. The implementation of this program was unanimously agreed upon by industry, public and several State government agencies. It is believed to be a good indicator to the improvement of air quality and public health in New Jersey (This rule adoption can be viewed on the NJDEP website at http://www.state.nj.us/dep).

Some of the commenters/supporters are:

• James Blando of the New Jersey Clean Air Council
• Kevin F. Brown with Engine Control Systems
• Bradley L. Edgar with the Cleaire Advance Emission Controls
• Julian Imes with Donaldson Filtration Solutions
• Carol Katz with the Katz Government Affairs, on behalf of the Bus Association of New Jersey, and
• Dr. Nicky Sheats with the Center for the Urban Environment, on behalf of New Jersey Work Environment Council, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, GreenFaith, and New Jersey Environmental Federation.

The George Zimmerman Trial: Resources for Educators

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Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As I write this, Americans are processing the meaning of the not-guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman, the former Sanford, Florida neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February, 2012.  Because of the high-profile agitation that led to Zimmerman’s initial arrest and the subsequent gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial on cable TV, the case has become the latest vehicle for our national non-conversation about race and justice. With the possibility of federal civil rights charges  and a wrongful death lawsuit looming against Zimmerman, along with the promise from Zimmerman’s attorney that he will sue NBC for errors in its coverage of the case, it’s likely that we will still be talking about this matter for some time.

No doubt, this case is on the minds of college professors and co-curricular programmers at campuses in the US and elsewhere. TCNJ’s Department of African American Studies, which I chair, held and online discussion of the case in April, 2012. Herewith, a few thoughts and resources that might be helpful in that effort. This is a first take; additions, corrections and suggestions are welcome.

Case Details and Aftermath

Historical and cultural analysis

Politcal historian Jelani Cobb, director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut, penned a series of real-time reflections on the trial for the New Yorker that is concise, informed and provocative. His posts covered

  • the defense’s awkward opening with a knock-knock joke,
  • a compassionate take on the much-debated testimony of Martin’s friend, Rachel Jeantel;
  • questioning whether Trayvon Martin had a right to the “stand your ground defense,”
  • what the sympathy for George Zimmerman tells us about popular misconceptions about race and crime
  • how the Zimmerman trial reflects a growing American acceptance of racial profiling and surveillance
  • why so many African Americans see connections between Zimmerman’s acquittal and the 1955 murder of Emmett Till – and why the criticism that African Americans don’t care about black-on-black murder is wrong

Meanwhile, blogger Andrea Ayers-Deets says the case makes her aware of her “white invisibility cloak.” And The Root has African American views from multiple perspectives, including Ta-Nehesi Coates’ defense of the jury verdict. Susan Brooks Thiselthwaite offers a Christian theological perspective: “For Trayvon Martin, Is There No Justice?” Similarly, Michael Lerner offers a Jewish perspective in his essay, “Trayvon Martin and Tisha B’av: A Jewish Response.” Charles’ Pierce’s sharp irreverent series of posts for Esquire is called the Daily Trayvon. The Huffingtion Post has a dedicated Trayvon Martin section.

Related Cases

For legal scholars, the killing of Trayvon Martin is part of a larger set of cases related to “Stand Your Ground” laws that expand the traditional definition of self-defense and justifiable homicide. Below are links to several cases that have been cited in this context:

  • Jordan Davis – the 17-year-old was fatally shot while sitting in a car at a gas station by 45-year-old Michael Dunn, who complained about the loud music emanating from the car’s speakers. Dunn reportedly plans to invoke the Stand Your Ground defense when his trial begins in September.
  • Marissa Alexander was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2012 for firing what she contended were “warning shots” to scare off an abusive ex-husband. No one was harmed in the incident.
  • CeCe McDonald  pled guilty to second-degree manslaughter in 2012 in a plea deal after surviving what her supporters maintain was a violent, transphobic attack.
  • Tremaine McMillen, a 14-year-old Miami boy who was wrestled to the ground, choked and arrested by Miami police who said he “clenched his fists” and gave them  “dehumanizing stares.” His family and supporters launched a petition in June asking that felony charges agaginst him be dismissed.

Stand Your Ground Laws, Racism and ALEC

  • Sociologist Lisa Wade reviews research findings that Stand Your Ground laws increase racial bias in cases of justifiable homicide. John Roman’s analysis includes data for white-on-white crimes (h/t Diane Bates.)
  • A June, 2012 Tampa Bay Times analysis of the application of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law found that white defendants were far more likely to be acquitted than black defendants, along with allowing, “drug dealers to avoid murder charges and gang members to walk free.”
  • The Center for Media and Democracy has been closely following the role played by the American Legislative Exchange Council in promoting “Stand Your Grownd” laws across the country as part of its ALEC Exposed project. According to CMD,  ALEC used the Florida law as a “template” for “model legislation” that has been enacted across the country.

Implicit Bias, Law and Public Policy

  • In the video embedded at the top of this post, Maya Wiley of the Center for Social Inclusion argues that our civil rights laws were designed to address conscious discrimination, but psychology and neuroscience are teaching us that bias operates far more frequently at an unconscious, implicit level. Thus, it is possible that both George Zimmerman’s claim that he held no racial animus against Trayvon Martin and his accusers’ claim that Zimmerman racially profiled the teenager can both be true. Jonathan Martin and Karen Feingold offer thoughts on Defusing Implicit Bias in this 2012 article in the UCLA Law Review that specifically notes the Zimmerman case.  Anti=racist educator Tim Wise also has a lot to say on the subject.

Related legal issues

Artistic responses

  • Anthony Branker and Word Play: Ballad for Trayvon Martin, from the album, Uppity
  • Watoto of the Nile, “Warning” (Dedication to Trayvon Martin)
  • Jasiri X.”Trayvon.”
  •  Art for Trayvon – Tumblr blog

    Portrait of Trayvon Martin
    By Sheppard Fairey
  • Editorial cartoons by Keith Knight, Daryl Cagle‘s cartoon blog



Teaching Games as Journalism: Pedagogy and Practice

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Presentation to the NSF C-PATH Distributed Expertise Colloquium, Villanova University, June 3, 2013

A guide the acronyms and some other helpful references:
JPW- journalism/professional writing major at The College of New Jersey
IMM – interactive multimedia program at TCNJ
DE – C-PATH Distributed Expertise project NSF Award Abstract
Wolz’ Simple Storyteller

I was a college newspaper adviser, too

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A former student passed along this March, 2013 blog post , “I was a college newspaper advisor,” by journalist and adjunct journalism instructor Jeff Pearlman about his disappointing experience as an unpaid adviser for Manhattanville College’s student newspaper. According to the post, Perlman helped the students launch the paper in 2011, extracted a promise of support and non-interference from the administration, and put in lots of sweat equity helping the students learn the fundamentals of newspaper reporting, editing, design and production. Unfortunately, he said, the administration pulled the paper out from under him and the student staff because it was upset that articles criticizing aspects of campus life might repel potential applicants and donors. The administration installed a PR prof as advisor, the staff turned over, and the result was an irregularly-published PR rag. Pearlman went on to help his students found an alternative online outlet, PubWrap. For Pearlman, the whole sad saga is part of the larger attack on journalism:

“What hurts most (and what, I suppose, inspires me to write this) is that this sort of stuff is going on everywhere. Journalism is, undeniably, under attack. Newspapers are closing. Corporate entities are stifling free press; colleges and universities are cracking down on student-generated publications….”

Read the post, and read the discussion that follows. As I read it, I recognized many of the issues that Pearlman raised, either from my own experience or those of peers at other institutions.

I too, was a college newspaper adviser.

Fortunately, the student newspaper with which I was associated from the mid-90s to the mid-aughts, The Signal, is going strong under the mentorship of their current advisor, former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Emilie Lounsberry. (Once again, they racked up the honors (.pdf) in the New Jersey Press Association’s annual Better College Newspaper Contest.) Like Pearlman, I also helped my students launch Unbound, an online newsmagazine, in the days when online journalism was young. I know something about late nights, stale pizza, cringing over simple errors, taking pride in each improvement and helping students figure out coverage of big, awful, breaking stories in real time (9/11 especially comes to mind.)

I also know something about having to negotiate to protect the newspaper’s autonomy and resources, although I must say that I am fortunate never to have encountered the treachery that Pearlman apparently experienced.

Drop in on a listserv discussion or meeting of the College Media Advisers, or browse the news flashes on the Student Press Law Center website and you are sure to come across issues such as:

  • Newspapers being stolen or removed from public distribution because someone is offended by its contents
  • Pressure from administrators to provide favorable coverage, or stifle unfavorable coverage.
  • Threats of legal action from outside parties over coverage of a story concerning them.
  • Demands from outside groups demanding the removal of editors and/or advisers because of what they published — or refused to publish.
  • Actual threats to the safety of student staff and advisers that required police action.

Fortunately, organizations such as SPLC and CMA are invaluable in helping to ensure that students’ and advisers’ legal rights are protected. So are state press associations. I recall having to call the legal hotline of our state press association on more than one occasion to get advice about my rights as an adviser, as well as my students’ rights.

Because you can be sued for something the students publish, even though you didn’t know about it, and even though you had no input into the publishing decision. And CMA argues that, indeed, you should not have any input into those decisions: “It should not be the media adviser’s role to modify student writing or broadcasts, for it robs student journalists of educational opportunity and could severely damage their rights to free expression.”

Pearlman doesn’t say whether he consulted CMA or SPLC about his difficulties with the Manhattanville College administration. CMA has been known to censure campuses for stifling students’ freedom of speech in the manner Pearlman describes. Manhattanville’s administration might not have cared, and as a private institution, it has more latitude than does a public college such as mine when it comes to these kinds of decisions. And as a poorly-compensated adjunct with a full-time sportswriting gig, it’s understandable if Pearlman chose to cut his losses and vent on his blog instead of fighting. But others who may be in similar positions need to know that there are resources out there. I know I discovered CMA on my own. Other faculty advisers shouldn’t have to.

 

Inaugurations, Civil Rights Anniversaries and Newsroom Diversity: A Reflection

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As I write this, the United States is re-enacting the second inauguration of Pres. Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. In a nod to the Civil Rights Movement that did so much to make an African-American possible, Myrlie Evers-Williams will give the invocation. Her first husband, Medgar Evers, was martyred nearly 50 years ago for registering black people to vote in Mississippi. Evers was a colleague and of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is being marked today as a national holiday.

Tomorrow, I begin teaching the latest version of my Race, Gender and News class, which is cross-listed between TCNJ’s journalism/professional writing major and our African-American Studies minor. At this moment, I happen to chair the African-American Studies Department while teaching in journalism and interactive multimedia. I watch this moment as a child and student of the Civil Rights movement, an American, a journalist and educator committed to building structures for peaceful change through civic dialog. My friend and college classmate, legal scholar Adrien Wing, articulated the challenge of synthesizing and acting upon through the prism of these multiple perspectives in her insightful and poignant 1990 essay for the Berkeley Women’s Law Journal, “Brief Reflections Toward a Multiplicative Theory and Praxis of Being.”

As Wing says, ” [F]eeling is first,” so I’ll begin there. The President is a man of my generation, with a personal narrative that bears some similarities with my own. His wife is one degree of separation from me, many times over, because we share the same undergraduate alma mater. I knew her brother there, as well one of their closest friends and supporters. As an undergraduate, I knew Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who administered the oath to VP Biden. I have grown more used to seeing these friends of my youth on the national stage in the last four years, but part of me is still awestruck. Their ascendance represent impossibilities that became possible in my lifetime.

And yet, they also represent something else that we Civil RIghts children used to repeat to each other during our undergraduate years — that human progress does not come through the actions of charismatic leaders, but through the concerted efforts of many people over time, most of whom will only be known to those who loved them. Feeling and inspiration have their place, but clear-eyed assessments are what matters.

Both the power and limits of charisma, smarts and inspiring personal narrative have been evident during the Obama years, and have been the focus of contentious and sometimes mean-spirited debate. Whether one loved or loathed Pres. Obama in January, 2009, he has defied easy categorization. The president who extended an open hand to Iran also gave the order for the drones that regularly strafe outposts in Yemen and Pakistan thought to harbor terrorists. Those up in arms about his recent executive orders on guns might do well to remember that one of his first acts after his 2009 inauguration was to order the closure of the notorious prison at Guantanamo Bay. That hasn’t happened, although administration officials reportedly say they will keep trying. According to Politifact, Obama kept about half of his campaign promises during this first term, compromised on another 20 percent, and broke about 25 percent.

Some of this, of course, is the reality of ordinary politics. No president fulfills all of his promises. And perhaps it is predictable that a president who prepared for his first term by studying Lincoln and FDR would, like them, endure accusations that he was overstepping his bounds and trampling on liberty. But  race is inevitably part of the equation. Ta-Nehesi Coates and William Jelani Cobb have provocatively written on this; I need say little more here than to urge a reading of their words for those who haven’t. But I will note this –   students of the Civil Rights movement note with concern the fact that, as Dr. King once said of Alabama’s pro-segregationist governor,  the lips of some gun-rights advocates and Obamacare opponents are, “dripping with words of interposition and nullification.” Nor have they lost sight of the pro-segregation lineage of some Obama opponents, such as the Council of Conservative Citizens.

We’ll be using Eric Deggan’s new book Race Baiter: How the Media Uses Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation as one of core texts. As Deggans puts it:

“This book is an attempt to decode the ways media outlets profit by segmenting Americans. I call it the Tyranny of the Broad Niche; what happens as the biggest pieces of an increasingly fragmented audience are courted at the expense of many others.”

In communities such as Mercer County, New Jersey, where our journalism undergraduates and alumni play a critical role in news coverage, progress during the Obama administration’s second term will likely be gauged by personal measures of well-being: whether the capital city of Trenton’s long economic decline can be stemmed, whether the states’ above-average unemployment rate can be reversed, whether something can be done about the almost-daily deadly shootings and abysmal graduation rates. While much of the Trenton news media’s focus in 2013 will likely be consumed with the pending corruption prosecutions of Mayor Tony Mack, et. al. and the latest sound-byte from the blustering, contrarian Governor Chris Christie, I’ll strive to keep my students focused on the processes and dynamics that affect people’s lives but don’t readily lend themselves to twitpic or SEO-optimised clickbait accompanied by top-dollar contextual ads.

The world is watching, and not just in obvious places, such as London, Jerusalem, Nairobi or Caracas. This past September, I was privileged toFICHAR Nepal spend a week in Nepal at the behest of the US State Department, where I participated in conversations with students, human rights advocates, legal experts, journalists, educators and government officials about building democracy through a strong and inclusive civil society. Many of our conversations were about the applicability of the US Civil Rights and feminist movements to Nepal’s very challenging and complex political situation, and I was asked more than once to opine on the role of racism in the opposition to Obama. As the International Crisis Group notes, Nepal is at an impasse in its efforts to adopt a new Constitution largely because, “Nepali actors are deeply divided on the role of identity politics in the proposed federal set-up.”  In the face of these divisions, activists groups such as Fichar Nepal wage a valiant campaign for peaceful and inclusive change.

Conversing with civil society leaders in Biratnagar, Nepal.
Conversing with civil society leaders in Biratnagar, Nepal.

As a journalist and educator, my job is to seek and encourage that broader, richer understanding of moments such as these. That’s akin to asking a chef to deliver a multi-course banquet to diners conditioned to the microwaved info-snacks continuously served up by cable news and its social media extensions. I plan to try some new things in the classroom and with class projects to encourage healthier news production and consumption; we’ll see how it goes.

In the meantime, here are a two story angles that I do find interesting in relation to today’s events that probably won’t get much press attention:

  • Robert Moses’ birthday. The key architect of Freedom Summer and founder of the Algebra Project turns 78 on January 23. It’s a perfect occasion to finally focus attention on what 30 years of research and civic action around math education can teach us, as well as his contention that making quality education a constitutional right is the logical extension of the Civil Rights movement today.
  • The impact of Michelle Obama’s healthy-eating initiatives. According to a recent Washington Post article, feminists are “divided” over Obama’s characterization of herself as “Mom-in-chief,” and find her focus on childhood obesity “trivial,” especially compared to former First Lady Hillary Clinton’s prominent role in her husband’s administration. (As is too often the case with such political stories, the story appeared in the Style section, with and referred to her ‘work’ in literal quotation marks.) One might have hoped for some investigation of the actual impact of her Let’s Move  initiative, given the importance of childhood obesity as a public health issue, and the considerable effort being expended by advocates, non-profits and local governments to improve healthy food access.  In fact, I’ve only seen one such investigation: an October, 2012 article by Bridget Huber of the Food and Environment Reporting Network judging the results of her strategy of forging public-private partnerships to be modest and controversial among activists. More local follow-up on this matter would be welcome, especially pared with analyses of the impact of the Administration’s 2010 $400 million Healthy Food Financing Initiative.

And so we all begin again.