9 Personal Reflections

Like Iowa Hawkeyes charging on the field,

Iowans battle for the air to be healed.

Late nights I typed with heavy eyes,

Exploring the gaps, the laws, the lies.

Not touchdowns or field goals scored

But test results are still being ignored.

Like Hawkeyes we storm the line,

This fight is not won on track

But in the laws that hold smoke back.

Page to page, the truth became clear

So I press on with hope and fear

For Iowa’s future

to finally believe.

Writing this semester-long essay regarding air pollution in Iowa was both challenging, rewarding and perspective altering. I went into this topic with an initial understanding, but as I got the opportunity to dive deeper into the meaningful research and course material, I realized just how much I misjudged the complexity and urgency of this very prevalent situation. Before this project I believed air quality and air pollution to be a concerning set of statistics, I now know that these are both prevalent public health issues that are complexly interlinked. Throughout the semester I spent many hours sifting through documents, past lecture notes, local public health reports and more. In order to fully grasp the connection between Iowa’s poor regulations and their impacts on local Iowans health. (EG) 

I feel one of my most eye opening experiences within this project was the realization of how many of Iowa’s counties are disproportionately affected by poor air quality with repercussions that extend far beyond a chronic cough. This experience was truly meaningful as I was able to connect the environment, policy regulations and the impact on real lives. As I continued into research I found myself becoming highly concerned with not only the skyrocketing numbers but the people behind these numbers. (EG)

Overall this project deeply pushed me and completely modified my understanding of air pollution and the impacts that this pollution can have on health work and the environment. This research has furthered my passion to advocate for systematic change and ensure clean air for all local Iowans. (EG)

Lucas Mason –

Looking back at all the research that I have done for this project I have learned so much and I will be able to take that with me for the rest of my career. Being able to understand how air pollution works but also where it comes from is very interesting to me. I am one that is interested in history so researching the history behind the evolution of air pollution and what changed over time was great. Understanding the past is very important for the future so that we do not repeat the same mistakes again. A good example would be learning about carbon credits. It was very effective, and it could work again in different situations in the future. I can take that idea into my professional work and understand why they do those types of programs. I also can understand why there are limits on certain industries and not others because of how harmful certain pollutants are compared to others. Working in my group was great since we were able to bounce ideas off of each other and ask questions if we got stuck on something. I also enjoyed seeing her portion of the project talking about more localized air pollution compared to my global air pollution. Seeing how my global issues also came down into the local issues was very interesting and opened my eyes up to see how small the world actually is. You would not think something so large can have local impacts, but it can have huge impacts. Overall, I really enjoyed this project since I got to learn a lot about air pollution and how it is seen around the world. In a lot of classes, we do not focus on global issues so seeing how perspectives changed in different areas globally made it a huge learning experience. I hope that others got to learn about their topics like I did and be able to take those lessons with them through their careers. (LM)