Reposted from the College of Science.

Daniel Mendoza is not a typical academic scientist.

With an impressive list of publications, averaging a new paper each month, academic scholarship is only one of his accomplishments. A research associate professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah, Mendoza has become an environmental social justice advocate, leveraging his research to get the attention of politicians and legislatures. The intersection between what’s happening in the atmosphere and what’s happening on the ground in people’s lives is where Mendoza readily enters.

This summer, Salt Lake County has experienced heat waves that mirror those throughout the United States. According to the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, extreme heat kills around a thousand people each year in the country, more than any other natural occurring factor. Effects from the heat are easily felt, but more insidious are the effects from increased concentrations of air pollutants, namely ground-level ozone. 

“Ozone is dangerous because it basically causes a sunburn in your lungs that impacts respiratory and cardiovascular health,” Mendoza explained in an interview with @theU’s Lisa Potter.

Ozone is not directly emitted into the atmosphere but rather is the result of air pollutants interacting in the presence of sunlight. In the summer, Salt Lake City’s airshed often falls out of compliance with the federal ozone standard, especially on hot afternoons when ozone concentrations peak.

In one recent study, Mendoza and his team asked the question, “Can cool zones protect individuals from heat and poor air quality?” “Cool zones” are public buildings, such as recreation centers and libraries, that double as environmental refuges for vulnerable people during periods of extreme heat. Mendoza’s study focused on Salt Lake County’s Millcreek Library, 2266 E. Evergreen Ave.

Cool zones not only protect individuals from heat with the use of air conditioning, but the study found that the Millcreek Library also reduced exposure to atmospheric ozone by around 80%. Given their demonstrated efficacy, Mendoza is now critical of the current scope of cool zones.

“We should be thinking about how to make these centers more accessible, for example,” he said, “keeping them open for longer hours to protect people during the hottest parts of the day.”

Some heat refuges close around 2 or 3 p.m. and aren’t open on weekends.

Mendoza understands that data alone is not convincing enough to enact change.

“About 50% of people in the U.S. believe in climate change, but 100% believe in lung cancer,” he said, “which is why I wanted to pivot from more climate drivers and greenhouse gas emissions and products towards more health criteria.”

It was during his Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship program at the U when Mendoza learned more about how to tie in the social and basic sciences with the health sciences.  

On “orange” or “red” air quality index (AQI) days, students are often sent outside for recess, resulting in many children experiencing respiratory symptoms and needing to be sent home. Missing school every so often because the air quality is poor doesn’t sound like a huge issue, but it adds up to impact the student as well as the school, its district and the city where they live, he said.

“When you have repeat absenteeism, then the potential to graduate is much lower, the potential to go to college is much lower, then your tax base is lower,” Mendoza said. Increased school absences cost the city around half a million dollars a year in terms of reduced workforce, education costs and health care costs. 

The solution, according to Mendoza’s research, was surprisingly simple: emergency asthma inhalers in every classroom, right next to the Epinephrine Auto-Injectors branded “EpiPens.”

He worked with Rep. Mark Wheatley, D-Salt Lake City, chair for the Utah Asthma Task Force to pass a law to make Utah the 14th state requiring emergency asthma inhalers in a single school. Now on bad air days, instead of sending a student home, students can use the rescue inhaler and remain at school, placing less of an economic burden on the city and giving themselves more time to learn. 

Mendoza soon discovered that certain populations in the city were more endangered than others. What distinguished those populations was lower-income brackets and racial and ethnic inequities. When he first moved to Salt Lake City, Mendoza was excited about the buzz around air quality.

“I thought, this is great. My research is going to be welcomed by the community,” he recalled. Instead, he discovered that these events were forgetting a key part of the problem: the people who are most impacted. 

Mendoza started attending community-based informational gatherings about climate change and the environment.

“All of these events are held east of State Street. They were all in English. No one looked like me,” he said. “Then at the end of the talk, the conclusion was ‘buy electric vehicles and solar panels and we’ll save the world together.’ Well, that doesn’t work for everyone.” 

Not only is there a disparity in the communities affected by poor air quality, but there is an inequality in accessible solutions to the problem.

The first step in empowering the community and addressing this imbalance was to bring science to them. Mendoza began organizing outreach events, this time west of State Street, held in both Spanish and English. 

“We provide them with actionable solutions. For example, we partnered with Utah Clean Energy, and we did an LED exchange where people bought in their normal light bulbs,” he said. Another initiative included a furnace filter exchange with 100 homes in Salt Lake County. When indoor air was tested for 43 different potential problematic elements, researchers found elevated levels of uranium, lanthanides, arsenic and lead, “all the nasties.” 

Those “nasties” come from a variety of sources. “If you’re close to a highway, for example, you [breathe in] more of aluminum, associated with brake wear,” said Mendoza. “When was the last time you sat outside for eight hours? You spend 90% of your time indoors and 60% of your time in your home, roughly speaking.” 

Policy-makers and the public often look at the costs of solutions to problems that require action, but sometimes they forget about the costs of inaction. 

Regardless of whether the focus of a study is cool zones, compounding wildfire emissions, or, most recently a recent study on the eBus project, a main tool for fine-scale carbon emissions measurements in urban environments, Mendoza approaches each new inquiry with the same goal: “I want to make sure that my science gets understood by the general public. I want to write in as plain English as possible, because ultimately, I want to enact change, I want my work to do change.” 

Mendoza challenges the stereotype of a scientist locked away in a lab and detached from reality. Instead, he is present on campus, in the community, and at the state Capitol using science to advocate for justice.

Daniel Mendoza also holds joint appointments as adjunct associate professor in internal medicine and adjunct associate professor in City & Metropolitan Planning. Read more on the 2021 documentary “AWAiRE,” featuring Daniel Mendoza in @TheU.