By RayJaun Stelly, The Seattle Medium
Public Health Seattle King County (PHSKC) hosted its second annual “Every Month Is Black History Month” event last Saturday, providing cultural awareness, health information, and resources to the community. The event, held at the Northwest African American Museum, highlighted the contributions of Public Health while celebrating National Public Health Week to encourage people to become part of an evolving movement to create a healthy nation.
The Black Community Equity Team, which is part of Public Health’s Community Health Services Division, developed and organized “Every Month Is Black History Month” to confront the longstanding, systemic health inequities experienced by the Black community residing in King County. By listening to the community, the team noted the importance of bringing more health services and related resources to the community.
The event offered free museum admission and tours, free food vendors, mammograms, health care services, and the opportunity to meet health care providers. Over 50 programs and organizations were represented at the event, which ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“We have a variety of people who want to make sure this (event) is available,” said Public Health Public Information Officer Keith Seinfeld. “This is the second year we’ve done ‘Every Month Is Black History Month,’ and our Black Community Equity Team said we’re not going to squeeze this into February, we’re not going to have everything for the Black community squeezed into February.”
“We had Every Month Is Black History Month last year in April, and this year we said that we’re going to do it every year,” he added. “It ties in this year to National Public Health Week, which honors public health workers across America. When Public Health started the Black Community Equity Team, we went out and did surveys in the community to ask what they want and need regarding public health, and they gave a list of services. This is part of bringing services that the community asked for.”
The Seattle and King County Community Clean Air Ambassadors Program, one of the resources at the event, shed light on the importance of indoor air quality. Terrance Mayes, Covid-19 Indoor Air Quality Program Leader, said IAQ (indoor air quality) is not talked about very much. IAQ describes the condition of the air inside and how it affects everyone’s health and well-being. Air quality is shapeless and colorless, therefore becoming aware of activities that impact IAQ is the first step in managing risks and reducing sources of pollution inside homes that can be harmful to your health.
Poor IAQ can lead to short- and long-term health outcomes and make existing health conditions far worse. Immediate health impacts can include eye irritation, nose and throat irritation, headaches, and fatigue, while long-term impacts can cause respiratory diseases such as asthma, heart disease, and cancer. Infants and children, pregnant women, people 65 years old or older, and those with existing illnesses are the populations most sensitive to being exposed.
Mayes said there are two main sources of poor IAQ. The first is dust that comes from pets, pollen, carpets, cleaning activities like vacuuming and sweeping, and second-hand smoke. The second source comes from volatile organic compounds that are associated with chemicals used indoors like beauty, cooking, and cleaning products.
A sheet containing all of this information, the clean air ambassadors’ program to help reduce poor IAQ, provided people in attendance with a fan that came with three air filters as well.
“We reach out to those in the community who are unaware of low-quality air issues,” Mayer said. “We go to small minority businesses and provide them with assessments of their facilities to give the best guidance and practices from a business perspective. We know that there’s a population of pregnant women, small children, and elderly that do not have proper filtration and resources.”
The program is calling on those in the community to get involved and become a King County Community Clean Air Ambassador and can sign up at www.tinyurl.com/cleanairambassador.
In addition, PHSKC is encouraging youth aged 16 and above to be part of their Public Health Camp. The camp will provide participants with hands-on learning from public health professionals to get a first-hand look at the work local health departments do in partnership with their community. Participants will also learn about the ways that PHSKC is attempting to dismantle racism and the data that drives public health interventions in communities.
