Each April the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center engages with multiple tribal communities as they host their Earth Day events. For many of the tribes, the events are week-long as they believe that Earth Day is every day and not just one day a year. This past year SWEHSC had the opportunity to attend five Earth Day events with tribes across the southwest.
Our role at Earth Day events is to provide environmental health education and information on environmental issues relevant to the tribe. One of the most common environmental health themes is asthma and air quality because many of the tribes in the southwest have high rates of asthma in their communities. Another common environmental health theme is trash and recycling. Our activities for these themes include; an asthma and air quality poster set-up, a non-toxic cleaner demonstration, and a trash sorting activity. We also distribute our Indigenous Stewards Magazine, which is a University of Arizona publication that highlights Indigenous students, staff, programs, and projects that are in the environmental health sciences or related fields.
Would you like us at your Earth Day? Contact us!