Salton Sea immigrant community experiences asthma at higher rates
As it deteriorates, the ecosystem around the Salton Sea in Riverside County in Southern California, has been creating a toxic environment that hurts the health of children of immigrant families who live and work there, according to researchers. A 2023 study by the University of California, Riverside, looked at the immigrant population of low-income Hispanic and Indigenous Mexican Hispanic people in communities around the Salton Sea and found that the rate of childhood asthma is 20% to 22.4%, much higher than the California average of 14.5%. … The Salton Sea formed in 1905 when the Colorado River, itself a river with high salinity, burst an irrigation canal gate and flooded the area; the lagoon almost had the same salinity as the ocean.