How Pollutant Factors have an Impact on California’s Population

Presenter: Pierce Rexford

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Academic Year: 22-23

Semester: Spring

Faculty Mentor: Omayra Ortega

Department: Mathematics

Funding Source/Sponsor: Class Project

President's Strategic Plan Goal: Sustainability and Environmental Inquiry

Abstract:
In this report, we investigate different aspects of how pollutant factors affect California’s diverse population using data provided to us by CalEnviroScreen 4.0. This data contains information on a variety of pollutant factors as well as population diversity metrics across California. Our research was centered around three main questions: Which pollutants are most correlated with asthma rates? Which city has a lower overall pollution score: LA or San Francisco? And which variable has a higher correlation to pollution score: poverty levels or education levels? We decided that creating linear models and anova tests were the best course of action to determine asthma rates and whether poverty or education levels have a higher correlation, while a t-test would work best to determine whether LA or San Francisco is more polluted. After careful investigation, we discovered that lead has the highest correlation with asthma rates compared to all the other pollutant factors. We also concluded that San Francisco has a lower overall pollution score, and that education levels have a higher correlation to pollution score than poverty levels do. These findings have many implications for citizens of California, especially for those who have asthma, live in the city, or encounter poverty and low education levels on a daily basis.