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JEFF SPIELMANGetty ImagesPUBLIC HEALTHAir Inequality
U.S. racial minorities are exposed
to more air pollution than white
people yet cause less of itHarlem and the South Bronx have some
of the highest asthma rates in New York
City. And these predominantly black and
Hispanic neighborhoods—studded with
smokestacks and crisscrossed by gridlocked
highways—are emblematic of a large body
of research showing clear racial disparities
in exposure to air pollution.
A study published in March in the Pro-
ceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
USA shows that even though black and His-
panic people in the U.S. are exposed to more
air pollution than white people, these groups
consume less from the industries generating
much of that pollution. The findings put hard
data behind inequities that environmental
justice advocates have reported on the
ground, revealing that racial minorities bear
a disproportionate amount of the costs of
emissions tied to higher levels of consump-
tion. “It echoes things we’ve been saying for
de cades in the environmental justice move-
ment,” says Ker ene N. Tayloe, director of
federal legislative affairs at nonprofit WE
ACT for Environmental Justice.
The study also found that these dispari-
ties persist despite substantial overall reduc-
tions in air pollution in recent decades. Rob-
ert Bullard, a professor of urban planning
and environmental policy at Texas Southern
University, who was not involved with the© 2019 Scientific American © 2019 Scientific American