By VoiceWaves Guest Youth Reporter Kaitlyn Smith
The noxious smell of diesel began to fill my nose as the bus for the first Toxic Tour departed for our two-hour journey through Long Beach. I coughed silently to myself.
I looked around, and the other community members on board seemed to have the same reaction. Little did we know, this was probably the most pleasant smell we would be encountering during the rest of our trip through our city’s most polluted–and just plain toxic–areas.
While tours like this one on Nov. 18 have occurred in other cities in Southern California, Toxic Tour is the first program of its kind to hit Long Beach. The facilitators, working through EndOil, decided to bring a tour to the city to create an educational experience that explores the landscape of Long Beach and informs about the many health and safety hazards that are encountered by the residents of the most heavily polluted areas.