Environment/Climate Change
Community Health Impacts of the Tijuana River Pollution Crisis: Results from the Healthy Water Healthy Air Study Baseline Community Health Survey Yu Ni* Yu Ni Ni Ni Ni Ni Ni Ni San Diego State University
Background: Untreated sewage and industrial waste carried by the Tijuana River has created a longstanding transboundary environmental crisis. This pollution has significantly intensified since July 2024, with border community members reporting noxious odor and major health symptoms. In response to these escalating community concerns, we launched the Healthy Water Healthy Air Study.
Methods: A bilingual online survey was conducted to establish a comprehensive community profile characterizing members’ environmental perceptions, health symptoms, and precautionary behaviors as indicator of resilience. We performed descriptive analyses and further Poisson regressions to estimate the associations of environmental perceptions with health symptoms and precautionary behaviors, controlling for sociodemographic characteristics.
Results: By October 2025, 409 community members (primarily women, White, and of relatively high socioeconomic status) completed the survey. Most participants expressed high concern regarding local air and water quality, with frequent malodor exposure. A wide range of health symptoms were reported, most notably upper respiratory symptoms (74%), certain gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea (50%) and bloating (52%), and psychological distress. Perceptions of poorer air quality, more frequent exposure to malodor, and occurrence of boil water notices were associated with a 28-80% higher prevalence of any upper respiratory symptoms, a 1.41-3.51-fold increase in expected counts of gastrointestinal symptom scores, a 1.70-2.19-fold increase in psychological distress symptoms and high-risk behaviors, and a 1.31-4.16-fold increase in precautionary behaviors.
Conclusion: This study is among the very few to understand the health and behavioral impacts of border communities during the Tijuana River pollution crisis. The findings support current and future public health interventions and binational policy changes aimed at mitigating transboundary sewage pollution.