Interview 20

S: Hello, P20! P20: Hi. S: Hello! How are you? P20: Good! How are you? S: Pretty good thanks for joining our interview, and I really appreciate that. S: I believe you’re S: experiences you will share with us will definitely help our research on, you know, cleaning our air around Kern County. So let’s start it. S: Let me read the introduction of this S: interview protocol. And let’s start with a question. S: We appreciate your willingness to participate in this interview, which should take about 45 min. Once we finish the interview you will receive $40 Amazon gift card. S: Our goal is to understand your experiences, living and working in San Joaquin Valley, especially concerning environmental issues like air pollution. S: Your insights are valuable and will help us better comprehend how these experiences influence community connections. S: Before we start, I just wanted to introduce my colleagues, who is also a co-author of this project. S: Here’s Song Hyoun Hong from Georgia State University. Sung Hyoun Hong: Hi P20 good to see you. P20: Hi! Nice to see you. S: And P20. I’m Sunjin Pak, and I’m assistant professor teaching human resource management at Cal State, Bakersfield. S: The reason why I start this research is that I start working in Bakersfield, starting from 2022, and at the time I had S: 3 month baby, she’s my third child, and S: because of the asthma she kept experiencing in the Bakersfield. We had to move to other place where, you know, air quality is good. So I’m currently living in Valencia, near Los Angeles, and you know there are a few of the people you know, stayed stayed in who experienced a similar situation. S: So that’s why I just wanted to know how people experience air quality like me. S: So let’s start with knowing about your current role and responsibilities in your workplace. Can you tell us about your current role in your job? P20: Yeah. So I graduated last semester or last year, and I am now staff accountant for an agriculture company. P20: So I see there like a lot of pesticides that get purchased things like that. And I’ve lived in Kern County all my life. I live in a small area, so I live in an agriculture town, Shafter, and that’s where I see, like firsthand how bad pollution gets and stuff here. S: Hmm! So as I said. S: you work as a staff, but does that S: tasks require your physical appearance in your workplace. S: so do you need to commute every every day. P20: Yes. S: And also, could you get some schedule autonomy from your workplace, like, you know, someday one of your family members are sick. You need to be there, visit the hospital with them, so you might need some schedule flexibility. Do you have those kind of perks? P20: Yes, yeah, I work Monday through Friday, but I mean, they’re very understanding with like family, and I have children, so they understand that things happen. S: Okay. P20: So that’s nice. Yeah, like, kind of no questions asked. Type of thing. There. S: Again. P20: Take time off. S: Okay, and your workplace is also in chapter. P20: I work actually in Bakersville kind of by the new Shafter, though off 7 standard, I work in that area. S: Okay. S: So as a staff member. How did you observe, S: Observe of them purchasing the pesticides or other chemical materials. P20: I see billing, but the only reason is, I used to work at a chemical company, too, so I understand what those are being used for. P20: So I mean, it’s pretty standard. A lot of farmers around Kern county get the same materials. S: I often smell some onion like smell when I pass by the grapevine grapevine near the you know Tejon outlet. P20: Yeah. S: Is that a smell of pesticides or real, you know, onion? P20: No, I think it might be onion. I know there’s garlic out there, too. So. S: Yeah. Garlic. Yeah. P20: Yeah, there’s a lot of garlic. Yeah. S: Okay, can you walk us through a typical day, including both work and non-work activities? P20: Got you. So P20: usually in the morning I drop my kids off before work. So around 7:30, then drive to work. So on the overpass on 7:00 Standard to me. That’s always a daily reminder. I like taking photography. I’m into taking pictures and stuff. So every time I see the mountains you can see kind of like that filter. Look! It looks all the haze. So every day as I drive to work Monday through Friday, I’m reminded of that. P20: You know what we live in, and I normally don’t go out and work in an office. But there’s times where they do require us to go out to the fields or to the potato sheds, the cold storage, but. S: That’s it. P20: And then, my kids, they’re involved in sport activities. So that’s another area that I’ve seen the pollution or allergies, the asthma things like that affect kids. S: I found that there are some Soccer Academy S: which make us to play our kids inside inside the dome, or some, you know, some structure like balloon S: does your children also play inside or outside? P20: They play mostly inside. But soccer, yes, they play outside. And that’s where I’ve seen several times that yeah, kids have to leave the game. S: Okay. P20: Can’t really breathe good. Sung Hyoun Hong: So one question you mentioned that you sometimes work outside. What kind of work activity do you usually do out of out of your office? P20: Got it, it would be checking out the different ranch locations that we have so like in our industry. Where I work right now. They have like potatoes. Grapes. P20: Alright. P20: What else have I seen? Really, that’s about it. But we’ll have almond areas. We’ll go check that out. P20: But that’s pretty rare, doesn’t happen often. Sung Hyoun Hong: So how often do you do that in a typical like week or a month, like once or twice a month, or something. P20: No, to put it easier in a year, maybe like 3 to 4 times a year. Sung Hyoun Hong: Gotcha. P20: Yeah, it’s not a lot. It’s usually, if there’s any like additions or anything we need to see for accounting purposes, so we understand better. But P20: yeah, that’s not standard for me. Sung Hyoun Hong: Gotcha. S: I says. You told us that. You have lived in San Joaquin Valley for a long time. But did you born here and raised here in? Oh, okay. P20: In Kern county, Shafter Wasco area. So a lot of agriculture. S: Does your parents also born and raised here? P20: No. Both my parents were born in Mexico and then moved here as kids. S: So regarding their perspective on the air quality in San Joaquin Valley, S: how do they talk about the air quality here? Because they could compare the quality between. P20: The other area with our Kern county. P20: Hmm! P20: They’ve never really mentioned it to be honest. It’s not something we talk about regularly, but I mean it just from what they’ve told me where they lived before in Mexico as kids it was like countryside, so that wouldn’t be normal to have so much pollution. S: Hmm. P20: You know, it was really small area. So they didn’t have a you know, it wasn’t a big town. S: Okay. S: So you lived in Kern County for quite a while and has your perspective or evaluation on the air quality has been changed over time. S: It could be bad to better S: or it could be better to worse. P20: I think it’s gotten worse, but that’s only in my experience, just like visuals. I mean, I do get like seasonal allergies, or like sinus headaches things like that because of the air quality. But P20: I could just say, like visually, you can see it for sure. S: So visually. You cannot see the the edge of the mountain frequently. P20: Oh, yeah, correct. Only like, after the rain is like a nice time that you can, P20: you know. See that I like to go hiking a lot. I’ll go to wind wolves and like when you’re up on the mountain there same thing. You can just look down at the valley, and everything looks so polluted. S: So when you are young, can you see the stars on the sky during the night? P20: I’m sorry. Can you repeat that. S: Can you see the stars in the sky during the night? S: Nowadays? We cannot S: see the stars. P20: I think you can. It just depends P20: on the I mean, I guess the quality of the air, but I think you can hear P20: but an example. This past weekend I went to the Griffith Observatory, and being up there in Los Angeles like I assumed like it’d be a new moon. So you’re gonna see the stars. But it wasn’t that easy there to see it. P20: Yeah. S: You know what? I also visited Griffith Observatory yesterday? P20: Oh, really, I went Saturday. S: And I watched two movies over there. P20: Oh, nice! S: It was really good. P20: Cool. S: And S: you said, your views on your evaluation of air quality has been changed. But were there any specific moment or experiences experiences, you had to change your thought of your thought about the evaluation of the air quality in Kern County? P20: Hmm! P20: Just things I hear on the news like when they announce right the weather. They give you air quality, bad things like that, and also see, seeing my kids at their sport events like. P20: you know, that kids, asthma and stuff like that does affect people. P20: I consider like I don’t deal with that. And my kids don’t either, luckily. But you know I see it firsthand how it affects others. P20: So I think, just within the past, you know. 5 to 10 years. It’s increased with them being in sports P20: and stuff. Sung Hyoun Hong: Have any of your thoughts or perspective changed since having a child compared to before? P20: Oh, yeah, I mean, I had kids really young. So I’ve been. But the thing is yeah. Before that I would have never really thought like, Oh, the air quality, or that might affect my kids, or it can give them asthma. I mean, some of my kids like they get headaches and things, too, but I do kind of think it’s the area they suffer from like sinus headaches, because everything gets all congested from allergies, and like in Shafter there’s a lot of dust and stuff frequently, too. P20: And then also, like tractors, right? The pollution that the tractors give. So I think that’s how we suffer. So I think, yeah, once I had kids, I started feeling it. And then they have that P20: symptom, the same symptoms, too. S: Okay, S: let’s talk about how air quality influence your daily life we have talked about. It could affect the chance to experience allergy reaction. But in what ways do air quality conditions affect your daily activities? P20: I mean, that doesn’t affect me like I said personally, because I don’t really have major like health conditions. But it’s just more to me the visual I mean, it’s just a daily reminder that this is the air that we’re breathing on a regular basis. And P20: there’s not much I think we are doing to reduce that. P20: So P20: like me daily, like, I said, unless it’s like soccer season, that’s the only one that will affect me, that we’re outside a little more. S: Okay. S: So when the air quality is bad in a specific day, like when there’s a heavy wind, you could see heavy, you know, you know, dust everywhere. And S: like that because of the specific, you know, air pollutions in specific day. Have you modified any work or personal activities or activities of your children due to the air quality concerns? P20: Oh, yeah, definitely, the for the kids. There’s been times that like coaches would still want to have practices. So I didn’t let the kids go. I’m like, yeah, it’s windy. They’re gonna get sick or something. Yeah, that’s not healthy for them to be out. S: Yeah, S: I remember that during the recess my S: And at in 2022 my kid was 10 years old. P20: Okay. S: And there were 5 recess 30 min, 5 recesses a day, and in that day, the air was terrible, and teachers are letting our children play outside, and when I asked my kid, where’s your teacher? My kid said she was in the classroom in the total recess time. P20: Yeah. P20: Oh, man, yeah, that’s terrible. And I’ve I’ve never thought about that, too. Yeah, the kids at school. That’s something that we have less control of. S: Yes. Sung Hyoun Hong: One, Sung Hyoun Hong: One question is like you mentioned about the soccer games and the soccer season. So during the those soccer season, are there any games that get canceled due to air quality or the air quality issues. P20: No, you know what? No, they’ve never have. The only time they’ve ever really canceled games is just cause the heat. Now that I think. But yeah, air quality. That’s not something that I think a lot of people consider, unless your kid, P20: you know, has an issue with that. But no, they they don’t. S: Yeah. So I also experienced that. And the sensitivity on the air pollution or air quality is quite varied across people, very across parents and teachers. S: and you said, you have more concern with air quality for your children compared to the coach. S: So did you have those kind of S: experience, some differences in in the perspective air quality across, you know parents or teachers, or your colleagues? P20: Yeah, what do you mean? Can you like. S: Like sometime, you know, you feel like the air quality in a specific day is bad. S: and the other folks think that the air quality does not matter so when the S: when, the in the day where the air quality is bad, your colleagues kept wanted to, S: you know, maintain the event as usual, but you said you wanted to cancel that event because of the air quality. P20: Yeah. S: So that was one incident. But were there any incident that you feel that there are some discrepancies, and S: in the perspective of air quality across your colleagues or parents, or you know, teachers. P20: Sure. P20: more like, I guess, in the community, like when the coaches do sports, I think, or even the P20: the Recreation Department as a whole, I think if they were to advocate a little more and let you know the coaches be aware like, Hey, you know, air quality is bad valley fever and things like that. Because, like I said, we’re around a lot of dust. So I think it just starts there. But maybe that’s why no one. P20: But that’s the only areas that I’ve really seen it in, like I said, is just here locally. S: Hmm. P20: So, yeah. Sung Hyoun Hong: Have you ever had experience like, like, even if the air feels okay for you to be outside, however, you might feel that it’s not suitable or appropriate for your kids or children to be in the outside. Sung Hyoun Hong: Not really? P20: No, not really. No, yeah. S: Okay. S: Have you made any purchases or changes to your home or routine related to air quality? P20: No, I’ve considered, though getting like a humidifier. But no, I haven’t. S: Okay and S: until now, we have talked about how air quality influenced you and your family and let’s talk about how it impacts the others. So from your observation, S: have you noticed the air quality had impacted others around you? P20: Not nobody like that I work with on a daily basis, or someone I see not really. S: Hmm. P20: Yeah. No. Sung Hyoun Hong: What about friends or the neighbors? P20: Maybe my sister, I know she sometimes it does affect her that yeah, she won’t want to go out places, because but she says it’s like her allergies. P20: So I mean, I don’t know if the you know, the quality just makes it worse for her. But yeah, she’s probably one of the only few people that I know. S: Hmm. S: In the workplace or among the people around you. How comfortable S: you feel discuss about the air quality concerns? P20: I’d feel comfortable P20: just. I don’t think no one really thinks like to talk about that. That’s not a topic. P20: That people bring up so you think that. S: Good. Yeah. S: Okay. So you think that people are less likely to S: bring up those topics in their workplace. P20: Yeah, in a sense, yeah. S: Hmm. P20: A lot of people like at work. I mean, they’re your colleagues. So they’re kind of like small talk, in a way. So maybe that could be a form of small talk. S: Hmm, can you describe the general attitude toward environmental health topics at work? S: So when you observe your colleagues discussing your workplace, S: can you describe their attitude toward environmental health? P20: Well, like in general, different places that I’ve worked it’s had to do like with outside jobs and stuff. But I’ve never really heard anybody complain about, you know, like, oh, the air quality is terrible. That’s not something that a lot of people P20: that I’ve been around think about, I guess, or the work environments they’d be more concerned with like the heat. S: Hmm. P20: Right cause. They work outside that. Yeah. P20: The last few places I’ve worked in the past 5 to 10 years. Yeah. P20: That’s not a topic, a hot topic. S: Have you ever shared personal or family concerns or issues related to air quality with your colleagues in your workplace? P20: More with my family like with my parents, like after the games and stuff P20: and maybe more, because it’s like somebody we know, since it’s a small community I’ll be like, oh, so and so left early because they’re allergies. S: Hmm. P20: But yeah, not at work or with friends. No. S: Hmm, okay. S: have you ever wanted to take protective measures like wearing masks when there’s a bad air, S: but felt hesitant to due to the social concerns? P20: Yeah, cause I think people might consider you delicate. If you wear masks, you know, cause people just associate that a little more with Covid. P20: But I mean it. Obviously. What does help, P20: if you wear it, you know, against the air quality. S: - S: okay, how would you think your coworkers would react if you wear a mask S: because of the air quality concerns. P20: If it was for air quality, I mean. P20: I’m not too sure. They probably wouldn’t say anything to to me about it. They probably would assume I would. I was sick at first, because nobody wears masks. But P20: yeah, I I don’t know how they would react to that. Sung Hyoun Hong: And what about like? What if you brings like any topics of about air quality in the table like. Sung Hyoun Hong: what if you show kind of serious concern. P20: Yeah. Sung Hyoun Hong: Air quality and how it might impact your children, or something like that. P20: I think they’d be interested like they would engage in it like, I’m me, personally, I don’t think maybe they know a lot about air quality more than I do, you know, so I don’t know. It’s just not something that I’ve considered to talk about. Sung Hyoun Hong: That’s all. P20: But I think that they would engage I don’t think they would be like, Oh, my gosh! Stop! Like I think they would. They all, most of my coworkers. Yes, all have young children, so I’m pretty sure P20: it concerns them. S: Sometimes people feel connected with others when facing common challenges, like dealing with air quality. I feel the same way when you talk about this. S: And when you learn that the others share similar environmental concerns, how does that affect you? P20: I think it makes you more connected like that’s how it would affect me. Because, like, you guys are on the same page about things you can do to P20: help if you could, or you know what we can do on our end to help protect ourselves from bad air quality. S: Do you have any specific examples or moments when you feel the sense of connection? S: when you talk about some environmental issues? P20: Can’t really think of any issue like, you know, environmental issues that I’ve I’ve discussed. S: Or you know, heat. P20: Oh, okay. S: Hot air, hot air could also relate to environmental issue as well. P20: Yeah. Well, I I’m thinking, to an example, and it’d be outside of work when I’ve gone to like wind wolves. I’ve gone like to spring festivals, and they every year they have one, and they talk about stuff there like how you can help protect the environment. And they give out flyers and the habitat around the area, and they also have like volunteer opportunities. P20: So I thought that was nice, like, what way to connect the whole community, and get people involved P20: and spread more awareness as well. S: Okay, have you ever felt isolated, due to the environmental health concerns S: or health concerns of your family members as well. P20: No, no. S: I was curious. S: how much pressure you had felt. When you talk with the coach that you don’t want to S: bring your children to the soccer field because of the air quality issue? P20: Yeah, I didn’t feel any pressure, because to me it’s like just learning how to set, you know, boundaries with certain things. And that’s something that P20: I feel I shouldn’t have to like. Explain a lot I just said, like, you know, the it’s the all the dust in the air. I don’t want my kid out there practicing. S: Okay. P20: And it was well taken. So yeah. S: Okay. S: The reason why I talk ask about that question was that some people worries about S: air quality, while others seemed unbothered. P20: Yeah, yeah. Well, and I think maybe me as an early parent wouldn’t have cared so much, you know, it would have been more like. No, you need to go to practice. P20: But now I’ve learned with, you know, the younger kids that I have like to be more. P20: I wouldn’t say lenient. But like, there’s certain things that it’s okay, like if they don’t, you know, that’s a good example that if she did didn’t go to practice, that’s a good reason. S: Hmm. P20: So I think just with more awareness throughout the years. Yeah, because, like, I said, younger me with my older kids would have been like, No, go. S: Hmm. P20: Practice. S: Hmm. S: Have you ever wished you could find others who share similar worries about air, quality. P20: Yeah, it’d be interesting, because I’d like to see other perspectives they have P20: like in the community and the environment, you know. So that would be interesting. I just I’ve never really P20: brought up this topic with anybody. So P20: maybe other people are, you know they care. But I just don’t know. S: Okay, so let’s talk about your S: company’s efforts on improving air quality. S: What steps has your organization taken to address air quality issues? P20: So, for example, there could be like distributing masks or using air purifiers or planting trees, S: or adjusting work schedules. P20: For sure. The masks like in the office that’s available. They they do have them. And then, as far as like the people who work in the fields, you know. I don’t know their exact protocol, but I know they have a lot lot of different safety, you know procedures than we do. But I’m sure it comes with that right, like the masks. And then also, like pesticide knowledge, things like that. P20: So I’m I’m pretty sure. Yeah, they? Their rules are a little different. S: So your company trained your workers about the information of the pesticides they are currently using. P20: Yeah, in agriculture. That’s what I’ve worked in the past few years. And there’s usually like a material book that has to be. P20: They’re in in each office, like whatever you’re using, you need to have the what the chemical is, the label, the active ingredients. So yeah, like, everyone knows where that is. S: Hmm. P20: If that was like a big interest of somebody. But yeah. S: Okay, then, what are your general thoughts about S: the organization actions on air quality? P20: I think they can probably do better. I mean, in all the Ag companies that I’ve worked at before. I mean, they have people who work outside all the time, you know, so there’s probably more they can do for them, since they’re the ones dealing with the air, firsthand pesticides, everything. P20: So I think I think there is more they can do. P20: More awareness. S: Have your concerns about air quality changed because of the organization’s efforts, like, you know, providing information on pesticides. P20: I think when I worked at the Chemical Company, that’s when I seen it more that it just kind of brought it to my mind like man. You know, they get all these chemicals and like P20: they’re put on basically everything. P20: Think that’s when it, kinda you know, dawned on me a little more to keep that in mind. S: Due to that information, have your S: thoughts or feelings or behaviors changed while you walk or S: outside of the building or, while you drive across the farmland? P20: Yeah, I mean. P20: I have a general idea, like, at least for me, in certain times, when seasons are where there’s going to be like a lot of dust and things. So I try to avoid certain roads if I need to. Just so you don’t have to drive through those clouds of dust. P20: Yeah. P20: and as far as walking, I mean they are. I really wouldn’t go outside. Usually it’s really hot, anyways, whenever it’s season time. But I mean you can see all the dust everywhere. S: Hmm. S: When you see the actions of our organization dealing with the air quality, S: have your feelings of connections to your organization changed because of that? P20: No, I I mean I don’t. P20: I don’t think so. S: Okay? S: then, what kinds of support or initiative do you think that your organization can provide to you to better address, air quality concerns? P20: I think maybe if the county. P20: because there’s like a commissioner, if they did a little more to that way, it would be spread across the board. That would be best. P20: More than an organization based because an organization’s gonna P20: do kind, I would say the minimum requirements that you know the county or state requires. So if the county had a little more regulations, P20: you know, or like trainings and stuff that would help. S: Okay, have you? So you said, you had worked for multiple companies. And among those companies, have you noticed whether S: one of the workplace have some kind of culture that encourages or discourages conversations about how air quality affects employees. P20: No, I’ve never felt that like in that environment, either. I think it’s just unless, like you have asthma or something like valley fever. I think that’s the only time someone P20: thinks about the air quality. More, I mean, yeah, I don’t think like, if people brought it up, you know, the company would be like, oh, no, don’t talk about that, or something so. S: Let’s talk about your future perspective and aspirations. So, considering the current air quality issues, do you see yourself continuing to live and work in this area for long term? P20: I would want to relocate. But I would have to do more research into where? Because I would want to make sure the same type of thing, you know. I don’t want to move to like LA where the air quality there, P20: yeah, it’s really bad, too. So I would want to make a smart move if I did. S: Hmm, so S: you said you wanted to move to other area. But do you think that main reason is air quality? P20: I’ve considered it. I keep that in mind, you know, because I want to have like I mean, clear, clean air, you know, to breathe without worrying about what you’re breathing. S: Hmm and S: Besides the air quality, what are the factors? Most influence your decisions about staying or leaving the San Joaquin Valley? P20: I mean the main reason why I would still stay here. I have most of my family here, but I mean P20: that would probably be. S: Hmm. P20: And I mean it’s home. So I’ve known, you know, this area. So. S: So the best option would be if the environment S: is better in in Kern County it would be the best, because you have family already in this S: town right? P20: Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, I think so. If the air quality was better, I think so. But yeah. S: And what changes would make you feel more optimistic about living and working here long term? P20: I think if we seen a community that had more, I mean, like, when I’ve traveled to different countries, right? They use different type of public transportation which we don’t. And here, like in California, I mean, especially like nobody really uses public transportation. So I think, seeing that would be P20: different because it minimize roads on the car. I mean other cars and on the roads and stuff. S: Okay. S: All right. So this is the last question. S: is there anything else you’d like to share about your experiences with air quality and community connections in Kern County that we haven’t discussed? P20: No. S: Okay, this is it for today’s interview. And, P20, if you have any acquaintance, you know, who S: really have concerns with the air quality, can you please recommend this research? And we would like to interview them. P20: To contribute to this research as well. P20: Okay, sounds good. S: Okay, and I will shortly send you the the gift card and P20. I hope you have a great day. P20: You, too. Thank you guys, good luck. With your research. S: Thank you. Bye-bye. Sung Hyoun Hong: Thank you so much. P20: Bye.