On days when the air pollution is especially bad, a mother in Tulare County, California – where cows outnumber people 2 to 1 – forbids her children from going outside. The woman, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal from her neighbors in the dairy industry, said that nearly everyone in her family, including herself, suffers from a combination of severe allergies and asthma, overlapping illnesses that cause sleepless nights, sick days and weekly doctor’s appointments.
She runs an air filtration system in their home to protect her children from the toxic fumes wafting off freeways, oil wells and cow feedlots. For an immigrant family of modest means, it can be costly to run the system, which consumes a great deal of power. Fortunately, she was able to get a discount on electricity from her power provider because her doctor prescribed the filter to guard against pollution.
Worried about water contamination as well, she also drives 20 miles to buy four gallons of clean water each week, as the water dispensaries in her neighborhood don't filter out certain toxins. While she and her children bathe in the water that comes from their faucet, she doesn’t use it for cooking and would never allow anyone in her family to drink it. Dealing with pollution is a daily struggle.
“It affects us at every level: financially, psychologically,” she says. “The worry for our children — it consumes us.”
