On March 11th, Dr. Amy Padula spoke at the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition‘s 23rd Annual Clean Air Action Day rally at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The following is her full speech.
My name is Dr. Amy Padula and I’m a scientist. I study how the air we breathe impacts our bodies and our health — specifically those impacts to pregnant mothers and their babies.
As the Interim Director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at UC San Francisco, I’ve spent my career asking a question that should concern every single person here: what happens when the most vulnerable among us — a developing baby, a pregnant mother — can’t escape the air around them? The answer, frankly, is alarming.
Our research has found clear links between traffic-related air pollution and wildfire smoke during pregnancy and serious harm to maternal and child health. I work with millions of records, but behind every single record is a person.
We’re talking about mothers in Fresno, in Bakersfield, in Stockton — communities already bearing the heaviest burden of dirty air from industrial agriculture, freight traffic, and fossil fuel extraction. These communities have been fighting for clean air long before it was a national conversation.
And here’s what makes this moment so urgent: after 50 years of hard-won progress — 50 years of science, advocacy, and policy — the federal protections we relied on can no longer be taken for granted. The rules that kept polluters accountable are under threat. The agencies charged with protecting public health are being hollowed out.
California has always led. When Washington turned away, California stepped forward. When industry said “it can’t be done,” California proved them wrong. Right now, when the rest of the country needs a beacon, California is that beacon.
To the legislators here today: we are not asking you to choose between the economy and our health. We are asking you to do what California has always done — choose both. Hold polluters accountable. Invest in clean transportation. Protect communities living along freeways, near ports, near the burn scars of our forests.
The science is clear. The need is urgent. Air pollution harms pregnancies. It harms children’s developing lungs, hearts, and brains. It shortens lives. The solutions are in front of you: fund them, fight for them, and don’t let polluters off the hook.
Fifty years of progress did not happen by accident. It happened because community showed up — at rallies, at hearings, at ballot boxes — and demanded better. Let’s not stop now. The lives of our children depend on what we do next.
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