"Pediatric asthma is common in Calipatria, where young athletes compete despite extreme heat and air pollution. Some worry a lithium boom could make things worse."
"On a baseball diamond about five miles from the southeastern shores of California’s Salton Sea, 12-year-old Christopher Leon steps up to the plate. Christopher plays for the Calipatria Braves, and tonight he’s the lead-off hitter in the game against the Calipatria Dodgers.
Mark Saiza,11, is on the pitcher’s mound for the Dodgers, and his brother Brayden Saiza, 10, crouches low, catching. Christopher’s bat connects with one of Mark’s pitches and he sprints to first base. As the game kicks off, the pitcher, the catcher and the first batter all compete despite having respiratory challenges.
It’s a balmy spring evening in mid-April in Calipatria — population 6,012 — and, thankfully for these young athletes, there’s little wind. The nearby Salton Sea, a land-locked, saline lake, is drying, and gusty winds whip up toxic dust and particulate pollution from the exposed lakebed. One in five elementary school kids living within 20 miles of the sea has asthma, health studies have found, and local kids who are exposed to dust storms experience reduced lung function and more wheezing and bronchitic symptoms.
Among the Calipatria Little League athletes, asthma and allergies are common. Brothers Mark and Brayden know their mother, cheering from the bleachers, always has their inhalers in case either boy’s asthma flares. Christopher, who would go on to score the first run of the game, admits that his dust and pollen allergies can become distracting on blustery game days."
Rebecca Plevin and Zoë Meyers report for Capital & Main July 24, 2026.
