How to Use This Data¶

Where Our Data Fits¶

Port Health Watch produces health impact data in formats used across regulatory, legislative, grant, and research contexts. This page describes how our data maps to each. It is not a strategy guide — readers working in each context know their domain better than we do. What we document here is what data exists on this site, what format it is in, and where it fits the evidentiary conventions of the use case.

EPA Environmental Justice Grant Applications¶

EPA's Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving (EJCPS) and Government-to-Government (EJG2G) grants require applicants to demonstrate disproportionate environmental burden with quantified health impact data.

Relevant data points on our port pages:

Monetized health damages — annual dollar figures derived from BenMAP-CE concentration-response functions and EPA's Value of Statistical Life
Environmental Justice Analysis — emissions-burden data aligned to EPA EJScreen indicator categories and CDC Social Vulnerability Index fields
Population exposure — below-median-income population counts within each port's impact zone, derived from U.S. Census ACS five-year estimates
Health outcome estimates — premature deaths, hospitalizations, and ED visits attributable to port emissions, calculated using peer-reviewed concentration-response functions

These map to the evidentiary categories EPA requests in the "Statement of the Problem" and "Environmental and/or Public Health Issues" sections of the grant narrative. The Methodology page provides the peer-reviewed sourcing chain for each figure.

Port Commission Proceedings¶

Port commission proceedings typically admit data on emissions inventory, community exposure, economic impact, and comparable regulatory frameworks. The following data points from our port pages correspond to those evidentiary categories.

Available data:

Annual health cost estimate — monetized damages per year for the port complex, derived using EPA BenMAP-CE methodology
Community exposure breakdown — the "Who Is Affected" table on each full assessment identifies census tracts and demographic composition of the exposed population
Technology availability record — each assessment documents the commercial deployment status of CARB-certified at-berth emissions capture systems
Peer regulatory comparison — California's CARB At-Berth Regulation has been in force since 2014; per-port pages document whether equivalent controls exist at the port in question

Format: Data points are presented with source citations on each port page. The Methodology page documents the analytical framework that produces the monetized damage figures.

Title VI Documentation¶

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating on the basis of race. Title VI complaints filed with EPA's Office of External Civil Rights Compliance require evidence of disparate impact.

Relevant data on our port pages:

Disproportionate impact documentation — emissions burden overlaid with race/ethnicity data at census tract resolution
EJScreen percentile rankings — quantified demonstration that affected census tracts fall in elevated percentiles on EPA's EJScreen indicators relative to national and state baselines
CDC Social Vulnerability Index — composite socioeconomic vulnerability scores for affected communities
Peer port comparison — regulatory-status data showing which port communities operate under mandatory at-berth emissions controls (currently California only)

Legal standards

Title VI complaints involve specific legal standards — including how disparate impact is defined, what constitutes a causal connection to a recipient's decisions, and how federal funding triggers coverage. Affected parties considering a Title VI complaint should consult legal counsel. Port Health Watch provides research data; we do not provide legal guidance.

Media Research¶

Journalists covering port emissions typically need: a primary-source number, a verifiable methodology, and a subject-matter contact.

Newsworthy data points on our port pages:

Premature deaths per year — annual mortality estimates attributable to port emissions, calculated using Krewski et al. (2009) concentration-response functions on ICCT-derived emissions inputs
Monetized health damages — annual dollar figure derived from the mortality and morbidity estimates using EPA's Value of Statistical Life
Regulatory status — whether the port operates under mandatory at-berth emissions controls (a binary that is "yes" in California and "no" everywhere else)
Community demographics — race, income, and health-burden composition of the exposed population from U.S. Census ACS and CDC PLACES

Verification: All inputs are drawn from publicly available primary sources (ICCT, EPA, U.S. Census, CDC PLACES, EPA EJScreen, NOAA). The Methodology page documents the full sourcing chain. We respond to reporter inquiries and data-verification requests at research@porthealthwatch.org.

State Legislative Review¶

State legislators or their staff reviewing at-berth emissions regulation need jurisdiction-specific data on the regulatory gap, the health cost of inaction, and the technology availability landscape.

Available data:

State-level regulatory gap — the Regulatory Gap analysis documents which states have equivalent at-berth controls (California only) and which do not
Annual health cost of inaction — monetized damages that accrue each year without at-berth controls, per port
Technology readiness — CARB-certified at-berth emissions capture systems are commercially deployed; our research documents operator status and performance data where publicly available
Federal precedent — in October 2023 EPA authorized states to adopt California's at-berth standard under Clean Air Act § 209(e)(2)(B); the Regulatory Gap page documents the legal pathway

Example citation format for legislative contexts:

According to Port Health Watch analysis using ICCT and EPA data, at-berth vessel emissions at [Port Name] are estimated to cause [X] premature deaths and $[Y] million in public health damages annually. CARB-certified at-berth emissions capture systems are commercially deployed in California. EPA authorized other states to adopt California's standard in October 2023.

This is provided as an illustration of how the data has been formatted in legislative contexts, not as suggested testimony.

Academic & Research Citation¶

Port Health Watch data is designed to meet academic citation standards.

Citation format:

Port Health Watch. "[Page Title]." Port Health Watch, [Year]. https://porthealthwatch.org/ports/[port-page]/. Accessed [Date].

Methodology transparency: All concentration-response functions, data sources, and assumptions are documented on our Methodology page. The primary mortality CRF is Krewski et al. (2009) from the ACS CPS-II cohort; monetization uses EPA's Value of Statistical Life ($11.8M, 2024-adjusted); at-berth emissions inputs are derived from the ICCT goPEIT screening inventory (September 2024).

Corrections policy: If you identify an error in our analysis, contact research@porthealthwatch.org. We publish corrections transparently — see the Corrections section on the Methodology page.