While watching this video, we learned about the harmful impacts of air pollution to the north Birmingham community. The main contributors to Birmingham air pollution are smoke, pollutants coming from construction sites, pollutants coming out of smoke stacks, and pollutants in runoff. Coke is a substance/fuel that is high in carbon content and is formed in the absence of air. Coke is mainly used in iron ore smelting as well as as fuel for stoves in factories which is why Birmingham is called Iron City. Honestly, I do not think there is enough being done to protect these neighborhoods and Birmingham as a whole. Something that really struck me was the building of the elementary school on the contaminated soil. Schools are supposed to be safe places where children can grow and learn to become the best version of themselves, but after hearing that most of these students have some sort of respiratory illness made me so sad. I could not even imagine being a teacher in this kind of environment and worrying about if my students still have enough clean air to breathe while we go about our day. It seems like very little is being done to help these communities clean up the contaminants. The EPA knows about all of the illnesses in these areas yet does very little to investigate the situation and reduce the number of illnesses in this area. The video mentioned the Jefferson County Health Department need data to move forward and investigate. The only way to get data is to investigate the situation which the health department is not doing. The main thing that prevents people from moving from these areas all are financial. The video mentions their houses now have no value, so they cannot sell them as well as no one wants to move to an area where there is a high concentration of air pollution as well as the high increase in illness. These people cannot move because they would have no where to go and no money to find a new place to live. I think the Birmingham air pollution issues affect all of us. BSC is right on the outskirts of College Hills, so we are also breathing in this toxic air pollution as well. After a little bit of reflection, I realized the majority of us would have the high concentration of air pollution in the con column when we were making our college decision. This was not advertised on our school tour. I am so thankful I do not live in this area full time, but I am sure we are still feeling the affects even though we may not realize it. We are just not feeling these impacts in the high quantities like the full time residents of College Hills.