New study finds pollution inequity among races

Hispanics breathe in 63 percent more than the pollution than they make, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For African-Americans the figure is 56 percent. White Americans are exposed to 17 percent less air pollution than they make.

|
Rick Bowmer/AP/File
Smokestacks near an oil refinery emit smoke as the Utah State Capitol looms in the distance. A new study released March 11, 2019, says African-Americans and Hispanics breathe in more air pollution than they are responsible for making.

African-Americans and Hispanics breathe in far more deadly air pollution than they are responsible for making, a new study said.

A study looked at who is exposed to fine particle pollution – responsible for about 100,000 American deaths a year – and how much different races are responsible for the pollution based on their buying, driving, and living habits.

Scientists calculate that Hispanics on average breathe in 63 percent more than the pollution than they make. For African-Americans the figure is 56 percent, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

On the other hand, non-Hispanic whites on average are exposed to 17 percent less air pollution than they make.

"Even though minorities are contributing less to the overall problem of air pollution, they are affected by it more," said study co-author Jason Hill, a biosystems engineering professor at the University of Minnesota who is white. "Is it fair [that] I create more pollution and somebody else is disproportionately affected by it?"

This pollution comes from gases from smokestacks, tailpipes, and other places that then solidify into fine invisible particles small enough to pass through lungs and into bloodstreams. These particles, more than 25 times smaller than the width of a human hair, pose the greatest risk to people's health, the United States Environmental Protection Agency says.

While other studies have shown minorities living with more pollution, this study is one of the first to combine buying habits and exposure into one calculation of inequity, Mr. Hill said.

Mr. Hill and colleagues looked at pollution from highways, coal-fired power plants, hog farms, and other sources.

They then looked in a large scale at who is driving more, buying more goods and food, spending more on property, and using more electricity, then traced those purchases to end users.

"On average whites tend to consume more than minorities. It's because of wealth," Hill said. "It's largely how much you buy, not buying different things."

Of 103,000 particle pollution deaths a year, 83,000 can be traced to the activities of people in the United States – not government and not goods exported elsewhere, the study said

Several outside experts praised the research.

"These findings confirm what most grassroots environmental justice leaders have known for decades, 'whites are dumping their pollution on poor people and people of color'," said Texas Southern University public affairs professor Robert Bullard, who was not part of the research. Mr. Bullard, often called the father of environmental justice, is African-American.

Mr. Bullard said his and other past research shows that African-Americans are 79 percent more likely than whites to live where industrial pollution is highest, with people of color overrepresented near Superfund sites and oil refineries.

He said there are far more mostly minority schools within 500 feet of major highways than mostly white schools.

"Being able to quantify the inequity is a key step toward addressing and reducing inequity," said Christopher Frey, a professor of environmental engineering at North Carolina State University, who is white and not part of the research.

One bright spot is that in recent decades the air has been getting cleaner in general, Mr. Hill said. However, his study stopped in 2015 and EPA data shows an uptick in fine particle pollution in 2017. But even with the cleaner air, it is still inequitable, Mr. Hill said.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to New study finds pollution inequity among races
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2019/0312/New-study-finds-pollution-inequity-among-races
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe