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Presidential Environmental Youth Award for Riverside Student
Otana Jakpor, a 13-year-old student at Woodcrest Christian High School, received the 2007 President's Environmental Youth Award for her science project, which showed that some indoor air purifiers emit unsafe levels of ozone.
Only one student from each of the ten EPA regions receives the award each year, which recognizes young people across America for projects which demonstrate their commitment to the environment. Otana was also recognized by President Bush in a ceremony at the White House in April and again in Riverside this week.
In presenting the award before teachers and students at Woodcrest Christian School on Friday, Regional Administrator Wayne Nastri praised Otana for her innovative research and said she had made an important contribution to protecting people from indoor air pollution. Riverside Mayor Ronald Loveridge and Jolyn Murphy, District Director for Congressman Ken Calvert, also attended and congratulated Otana on receiving this prestigious award.
For her science project, Otana Jakpor tested the pulmonary effects of ozone-generating air purifiers after she read a Consumer Reports article. Otana designed, coordinated, and implemented three experiments using an ozone sensor and a pulse oximeter and microspirometer which she borrowed from her mother, who happens to be asthmatic.
Her original research included testing subjects with and without asthma on various time exposures to air purifiers, personal air purifiers around their necks, and the concentration of ozone produced by five ionizing devices at various distances. One result was 15 times higher than the level of a Stage 3 Smog Alert.
She sent a copy of her research paper to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), a department of the California Environmental Protection Agency, while it was drafting a proposed regulation for limiting ozone emissions from ozone-generating air purifiers. On September 27, 2007, Otana was asked to present her research data at the CARB public hearing and it was officially submitted into evidence, as it provided strong support for the proposed regulation. CARB voted to adopt a regulation to limit ozone emissions from air purifiers to less than 0.050 parts per million (ppm), and now California is the first state in the nation to regulate ozone generators.