California Air Resources Board

Dear California Air Resources Board Members and Staff,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Draft Roadmap to Reduce Air Toxics. My name is Roshan Saxena. I am a student in Santa Clara County, help lead the FUHSD Climate Collective, and serve as a youth member of the Santa Clara County Sustainability Commission. I am submitting these comments in my personal capacity.

I appreciate CARB’s work to develop a long-term approach to toxic air pollution that brings together scientific research, emissions reductions, and community experience. Sustaining that work requires considerable coordination across agencies, and I am grateful that CARB is inviting public input as it establishes its priorities.

My main suggestion is to make the Roadmap’s near-term implementation easy for the public to follow. For the first phase of work, please identify priority actions, the responsible agencies, anticipated milestones, and any funding or scientific limitations that could affect progress. A concise public update could explain what has been completed, what has changed, and where additional work is needed. This would help communities understand how a long-term strategy is translating into decisions that affect them now.

As a student, I would also encourage CARB and local air districts to consider schools and other places where children spend substantial time when prioritizing monitoring and exposure-reduction efforts. Where information is limited, community concerns could help identify locations for further investigation, alongside emissions data and other available evidence. Importantly, monitoring should have a clear follow-up process: who reviews the findings, how affected communities are informed, and how the results guide consideration of appropriate emissions controls or other protective measures.

Public communication is another opportunity to make this work more useful. Families should not need technical training to understand a monitoring result. Plain-language summaries could explain which pollutants were measured, the period covered, what the findings do and do not establish, and whom residents can contact with questions. Clear explanations of uncertainty are especially important so that incomplete information is neither unnecessarily alarming nor falsely reassuring.

Finally, I hope ongoing engagement will include a visible response to community input. A short summary explaining how residents’ concerns influenced priorities—and why some requests could not be addressed immediately—would help people see the value of participating.

Thank you for your continued work to reduce toxic air pollution and for considering the perspectives of students and communities as the Roadmap moves forward.

Sincerely,
Roshan Saxena