Levent Akinci -Sustainability Planner for City of Nashua

 On this episode, host Savitri Horrigan sits down with Levent Akinci to discuss how climate action, clean energy, transportation, and city planning directly impact public health in Nashua. Together, they break down topics like air pollution, asthma, environmental equity, and the connection between the built environment and mental and physical health. The conversation also highlights Nashua’s local air quality monitoring efforts, public transportation benefits, and future plans for greener, healthier, and more connected neighborhoods. 

Transcript

Welcome And Introductions

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to Speaking Our Minds. Health is more than healthcare.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Hello, welcome to Speaking Our Minds. This is Savitri Horgan. I'm the behavioral health strategist with the City of Nashua, Public Health and Committee Services. This is Speaking Our Minds podcast where health is more than healthcare. I'm here today with Levin Akinchi.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

Hi, I'm Levin Akinche. I'm a sustainability planner with the City of Nashua Sustainability Department. My work focuses on building a more resilient Nashua. So I manage programs that really look at reducing your carbon footprint, or the city's carbon footprint, I should more so say, as well as improving our local environment, ensuring that our city's growth aligns with things like long-term climate and health goals.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Yeah, thank you for being here. And we also have uh Rida here today.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Hello, good morning. Welcome, Liban. Welcome, Silitri. It's a beautiful day, and I'm happy to be here with all of you, the public health strategist with the Division of Public Health and Community Services. I'm one of your hosts for this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Thank you. Yeah, so today I'd love to talk with you about neighborhood and built environment as a one of the social determinants of health and how it aligns with strategies from the state health improvement plan and the city of Nashua Cha and Chip, which is the community health assessment and community health improvement plan. All right. Yeah, so okay.

Built Environment As A Health Blueprint

SPEAKER_01 1:44

How how does built environment affect social determinants of health, in your opinion?

SPEAKER_02 1:50

The the built environment, which when when we say that, we're we're talking about like the the human spaces, right? So places where we live, work, play. It's really kind of in the end ends up being a blu blueprint, blueprint for your health, because that's where we're spending most of our time. We're we're in this environment most of the time 24-7, right? So it it has a much bigger effect on our health than I think anyone ever really thinks about. And it it's everything from from the the transportation around us, right? So people, I think that's a little bit more clear in people's minds when they think of something like this. Like you have air pollution from the emissions of vehicles that's gonna affect us, and depending on on how much of those emissions you are surrounded by, depending on your neighborhood. But even down to things like the number of trees around you, right? This makes a difference. The kind of paint that's used in your home. All of these little things that we don't think about day to day all have an effect on our health. So it's it's actually really important.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah, and the impact to mental health and behavioral health, which I'm sure we'll get into later.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Yeah.

Air And Water Pollution Basics

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Can you tell us a little bit about water and air pollution?

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Uh yeah, of course. So air pollution is is something that I really like to focus on specifically because I used to work for an air quality program.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

So it's something that prior to working for an air quality program, it, you know, you know about it, right? But you don't think about it as in-depth as when you then start working for for a program like this. So I think what's really important about air, air quality and air pollution is that it's kind of forgotten about. We all know about it. We know it's something that's around us. We know we have air pollution from all sorts of things, but people usually think of vehicles as as the main source of pollution, which is actually correct. In the US, the the biggest source of air pollution is vehicles.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Oh, wow, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Yeah, and specifically passenger vehicles. So the the vehicles that we're all driving day to day just because of the sheer number. But at the same time, we don't think of how much of an effect something like air pollution has on our health because we don't really see it. It's kind of invisible for the most part, right? Unless you go to like a big city like LA and then you're you're looking over the city and you see all that smog. That's the only time it's really visible, right? So we forget about it. But we're constantly breathing in that air pollution that's all around us. So it has a huge effect on the more we learn on everything. So everything from your physical health, short-term and long term, to mental health, cardiac health, all these things that we didn't think it necessarily had an effect on before, we're learning more and more that it does. In terms of water pollution, we can control water pollution a little bit better than we can air pollution, especially our exposure to it. But water is something we need, right? For for everyday life. So if we're not careful, if if we're not making sure that we have access to clean water, then then it's something that can very easily affect us too. Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Like what happened in Flint, Michigan and other places across the country.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

Right, exactly. And then when we think about the communities that tend to get affected most by by these pollution issues, it's always gonna be the communities that are that are already disadvantaged in some way. Whenever we talk about like Flint, Michigan, for example, you know, it's it's a community that is already disadvantaged in some way, and then they get something like that kind of piled up in the city.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Black communities, communities of color, also primarily impacting like families and and communities with lower incomes.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Which means also then fewer like resources and access to remediation for these types of pollution.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Right, and then it just compounds itself, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Yeah. I I wanted to mention too some things that I was surprised about when I was looking at our community health assessment for the city of Nashua. One thing related to air pollution, or that made me think of air pollution, was that in Nashua, 11.8% of adults have asthma. And like you were saying, it's not something that we necessarily there's so many different factors for asthma, but it can be compounded by outdoor pollutants and how outdoor air pollution is not necessarily something that we can see, but can have like really big impacts for our bodies, and also you know, how much we're able to like go outside and enjoy nature and get that physical activity.

Ozone And PM2.5 Explained

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Yeah. So when it comes to air pollution, the especially outdoor air pollution, I should say, there's six criteria air pollutants that we tend to focus on. This is something that was determined by the EPA under the Clean Air Act back in the 1970s, and and something that they've continued to always work on and improve and and whatnot. But out of those, the ones that tend to be the most prevalent now, today, a lot of work we've done since the Clean Air Act has has made this better. So even though we have six criteria air pollutants, there are really only two that are, for the most part, considered a major everyday problem still today. And those are particulate matter and ozone. So ozone people tend to think of like the ozone layer, right? So we like to say good up high, bad down low. If it's up high, it forms the this layer that protects us, right? Helps with solar radiation. But at ground level where we are, it's a major irritant for our lungs and can exacerbate a lot of health issues that people already have, like asthma, for example, but also other, any other really uh lung issues of any kind. Particulate matter is a little bit more insidious, so there's different categories depending on the size. You have PM10, PM2.5. PM10 is a little bit bigger, usually visible. PM2.5 is so small, 2.5 microns in diameter, that it's not visible and also small enough to be able to not only get into your lungs when you breathe it in, but even pass through into your blood. So the more we've studied it, the more we've learned that it has all sorts of effects on our body. We've learned that it has a major link on cardiac health now. We're learning more and more that there's links to mental health now. So yeah, the more we learn, the kind of scarier it becomes.

Making Air Data Local And Public

SPEAKER_00 8:30

I wanted to ask, Levin, with all this information that we have been able to learn, what are the chances that people get educated on these particular subjects? We're talking about particularly communities that are already in disadvantage. Some of them, if you think about it, are busy working two, three jobs or busy doing other, like trying to make their living. So they probably don't have the information that we have that we are trying to share for all of you all listening to this podcast. So, how does the city and your office work on trying to educate the community so they get all this information so they can act properly to prevent all these diseases that you're talking about?

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Yeah, so the I think one of the most important things is to make sure that the information is accessible, first of all, that it's out there. And then there's more to it than that. But just in terms of at least making sure that we have information available, local information available in particular, one thing that we've done in our department is we've set up an air program, air sensor program, I should say. So we purchased two low-cost air quality sensors. And and I want to make that distinction because the large-scale air monitoring is is done usually at county or state level across the country. And and there is a very good air quality monitoring program across the whole country. And and in New Hampshire, it's it's run at the state level. But the equipment that they use is is very expensive. So they can only have a certain number of stations, air quality monitoring stations across the state. And I believe they have like around eight or nine or something like that across the state, but it doesn't provide us with that really local level data, right? So that's where our low-cost sensors come in. We have one on top of City Hall, and we have one located a little further out by the two high schools. And that local level data can be used every day. So it doesn't replace the the state level monitoring that goes on, but it just provides us with a little extra information.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Yeah, and you mentioned that in one of our groups. It's been about a year that those are actually approaching two years.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Two years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

So what has been, and that's just one of the things that your office is doing. So have you been able to see some of that data? How is that looking? How is your office planning to use that data to help with education and to distribute all this information to the community?

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Yeah, so we we want to make sure that first of all, it's there, which great, check the box. But that's never enough, right? We always want to make sure that people are aware that it's there. It could be there and it's not going to do any good if no one knows it's there. So we want to make sure that we're getting the information out to schools. We feel like that's a really great way, getting the the kids to know, getting the kids to do projects even with the data from these sensors. Because the the data is free, publicly available. You just you can go to the city website and find it through the the sustainability department or our Livable Nashua site, which is our dedicated sustainability website. Or since we're using, since we're using Purple Air sensors, you can also go to their website and find it there. We've also made it available through the state. So we partner with the state for this program. And if you go through their monitoring site, then then you can find it there. There's also nationally available sites that you can go to, for example. If one that's used a lot, we don't tend to think of it so much because I will say New Hampshire as a whole, compared to many parts of the US, has pretty good air quality. But uh, in places where fire and and wildfire smoke tends to be more of an issue, it's becoming more of an issue for us.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

But where that is more of an issue, people often will use the Air Now fire and smoke map, which is something developed by the EPA. And our sensors are now on the fire and smoke map because the EPA has partnered with Purple Air to make sure that all of that data is publicly available on their sites too.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Wow, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

And it's important and helpful for like families to know this kind of information if they're thinking about like, you know, is it a good day to go outside and like play in the park or do those kind of things?

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Yeah, absolutely. So there's and one thing that comes that has to come with this is education about what the air quality index is. And uh, though the EPA has done a lot of work on this, I do find that there still needs to be way more done with it. Most people that I speak to on a day-to-day basis are not aware of an air quality index. The only time it really comes up is if there's a big like wildfire smoke event. Then people hear about it on the news. But it's something we can use day-to-day. So if you go and look at these sensors, it gives you a number on the air quality index and it color codes it as well, which makes it easier. So the idea is like green, good, easy. You can go out, no problems. And then it goes to yellow, to orange, to red, and then actually then purple and then maroon. But it's a pretty intuitive color scale, I would say. Most people understand it by just looking at it without having to know too much of the scientific detail that goes into these categories behind it.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Right. That makes sense.

A 20-Year Life Expectancy Gap

SPEAKER_01 14:04

I did want to talk about transportation and the connection of all this to physical activity. But before I do that, I also really wanted to share this statistic that I was kind of blown away by reading it from our community health assessment. That we see that in Nashua, the there's a 20-year life expectancy difference between census tracks 107, which is the downtown area of Nashua, versus 110, which is more residential. It's kind of it's closer to Revier University. And that just like blew me away in terms of like, you know, showing how important it is, you know. Obviously, that's related to a lot of different health factors and social determinants of health. But that I think that does really highlight the importance of built environment.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, just looking at those two census tracks specifically, right? 107, downtown. Just off top my head, you know, less trees to begin with.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Much more congested, more air pollution, likely, because of the number of vehicles that are passing through the area compared to 110, where you're looking at a much greener environment to begin with. It's much more residential, so you have less vehicles passing through. You have more of that green space that you can access. So yeah, there's a lot of factors that go into it, but it is jarring to see how much of a difference that makes within such a small area.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Yeah, and if you're not from this area, we're literally talking about probably seven minutes walking distance in between downtown area to the Revier University area. For those who are not familiar with the 107 versus like the census track. So literally we're talking about special, it's exactly the same street that goes back and forth. In a car, you can probably ride within a minute, right? And you know, our downtown, I consider downtown, it's it's pretty clean, right? If you visually it's pretty clean, it's pretty organized, but the life expense expectancy is is is the gap is super big. And it happens with the rest of the areas as well. And and I think it it has a lot to do with green spaces, as you say as well. And I'm not the expert, you are. So definitely this data that you are your office is collecting is gonna help sustain all this information that we're trying to use to educate our folks.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

And I wanted to kind of like tie it into or it's reminding me a lot of my my lot of my work is related to prevention for you know behavioral health, so substance use and for you know suicide prevention for youth as well as adults. And I I think about like the kind of like nature and like green spaces that you're mentioning and how important that is for youth to have those kind of protective factors and in order to to you know foster those positive childhood experiences, being able to go outside and like be with friends and like you know, ride your bike and feel safe to to to do all those things is is so important for that for for their mental health.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Yeah, exactly. They I think you you said it really well there. The the more access to that green space you have, the the better all around. And I think that's something that in some parts of Nashua we do a great job of. Yeah, like Wind Falls and Yeah, we do have these great green spaces. But when you look at maybe just the this core of the city, the downtown, those green spaces are not far away, but maybe not the most accessible, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

And a lot of that comes to transportation, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Yes. Yeah, can you tell us about some transportation like projects that y'all are working on and how that how you see that impacting uh people's health?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

And also I want to add to your question what is the importance of collective transportation versus like driving your own car? Because here in Nashua, uh a lot of us have our own car, but we do have uh public service available as well. So what's the difference and the importance?

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Yeah, absolutely.

Public Transit As A Health Tool

SPEAKER_02 18:30

So the first of all, uh I would say the US as a whole is very car-centric, right? And it's difficult to shift that mindset in the US because we have all gotten so used to just getting in our car and going where we want.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

And the infrastructure is is based around that.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Absolutely. But in terms of air pollution, I I mentioned this earlier, uh, passenger cars specifically are the largest single, I mean it's not really a single source, but largest source of air pollution in the country. So if we can have a little bit of a a mind shift, mindset shift not just here, but but across the whole country, that could make a huge impact on on the amount of air pollution that we're we're producing. And public transport is is just a lot more efficient when it comes to to the amount of people that you're able to transport at once, right? So it's not just that you're removing one vehicle by using public transport, it's it kind of amplifies itself.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

And there's a lot of work being done around emissions too, right? Like using hybrid vehicles and yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

And even if we didn't have that work happening by just shifting to public transit, even if it was an old diesel bus that's like pumping out emissions, it's still more efficient than using your own car. Wow. So you have to kind of get that in in your mind to really start to understand like how much of a difference it makes. And then when you're saying like we're using more efficient technology, so we're using hybrid vehicles, we're using uh CNG, compressed natural gas, which is cleaner alternative. It's still a fossil fuel, so there are still emissions associated with it, but it's a cleaner option than your traditional diesel buses. When you add all of this in, it means you're you're creating a much healthier environment to begin with. But the the bus system here in in Nashua, of course, there's always room for improvement, right? But does a pretty good job of making sure that there's access all across the city. And as with all public transit systems, they they ha provide ADA access as well, ADA support. So in in instances where that's needed, people with any sort of uh accommodations that that are needed, they they can still use the bus system, whether it's getting directly on our public city buses or using their ADA paratransit service. We also have senior support to make sure that we have access for for our our seniors in the in the city as well and make sure that they're able to get around the city as much as possible.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Right, because that's so important for social connection and making sure that our older adults have access to not only just like you know their health care, not just, but not only to their healthcare appointments and access to places like like like hospitals and and their medical providers, but also to access like connection with each other to go downtown, to go to the library or or wherever it is that they want to go and you know have that connection.

Launching The Rideable Nashua Bike Share

SPEAKER_01 21:53

I know we want to wrap up, but can I I I would love to hear I would love to just hear about like the ride ride shares in Nashua with bikes.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Yeah. So thank you for bringing that up. We are on the verge of launching a new bicycle rideshare program in in Nashua, actually. And and this ties right into what we were talking about with the bus system. It provides that extra level of access across the city, right? So we should be launching and we're calling it the Rideable Nashua program. And so we should be launching later in April our sustainability fair, which is going to be on April 25th, is actually the launch event for the this new bike share system as well. And I think it's going to be a well-used system across downtown. So we are focusing it on downtown at the moment. We are going to start small, but with hopefully with the people using the system and and showing us where they want to go in the city, we will be able to expand as well. It's going to be a little different from maybe what we've seen in Nashua in the past. So I think in the past we saw a lot of like bikes and scooters being strewn all over this place, all over the place, right? This is a hub-based system just to kind of help deal with that. So but that being said, it's a very flexible system. So if we find that there's a need for people to go to a certain place and they want to use the bikes to go there, we'll add it as a hub. So it's really going to be community driven in that sense. We want to see where people want to go and we want to make it as useful for the community as possible.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

That's awesome.

Where To Find Resources And Updates

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Where can people go for more information?

SPEAKER_02 23:36

So I would say the best place to go for more information is the city website, first of all. But from there, I would actually suggest going to uh the Livable Nashua website specifically, because that is our sustainability dedicated website. And on there, there's lots of information about things that you can do, but also on what the city is doing, the programs that we have, general information, everything that I think I talked about today, you can probably find on that website. So it is a great resource. You can also go to our social media. Sometimes we'll we'll post about events that we're doing, like our sustainability fair, for example, about the programs that we have. And then you can always call our department as well. If if you're interested in doing that, the number is 603-589-3000.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Wonderful. Thank you so much, Levent, for coming and talking with us about this today. This has been Speaking Our Minds Podcast, where health is more than healthcare. Thank you, Levent.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

I'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Yes. I don't know what was happening.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Welcome to Speaking Our Minds Podcast, where health is more than healthcare.