"Diagnosed with asthma at 8 years old, Karlaine Francisco grew up thinking everyone had it.

Her friends in south Stockton, California, also carried inhalers and suffered coughing and wheezing fits. “I would tell people, ‘Oh yeah, I have asthma,’” said Francisco, now a 17-year-old high school senior. “And then, my friend would be like, ‘Yeah, I have asthma too.’”

After California began making environmental data available through an online mapping tool, Francisco and others in her Filipino immigrant community realized their chronically under-invested neighborhood Little Manila suffered high air pollution and groundwater contamination. It also suffered some of the state’s highest poverty, unemployment and asthma rates.

California’s mapping tool is now a model for President Joe Biden’s government, as it executes a $2 trillion infrastructure plan that could channel billions into communities around the country like Little Manila."

Valerie Volcovici reports for Reuters April 13, 2021. [2]