Interstate 405 cuts through neighborhoods near Los Angeles International Airport, seen here in 2017. A new study has found a link between modern urban air pollution and historic recidivism at the national level.
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Interstate 405 cuts through neighborhoods near Los Angeles International Airport, seen here in 2017. A new study has found a link between modern urban air pollution and historic recidivism at the national level.
Reed Saxon / AP
Neighborhoods that were embargoed in the 1930s tend to have higher levels of air pollution decades later, a new study finds.
The paper’s authors looked at air quality data from 202 US cities and found a strong correlation between pollution levels in 2010 and historical patterns of reds. Of them study was published this week in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
Red border was a discriminatory mortgage appraisal method used by the federal government after the Great Depression that drew lines around Negro and immigrant neighborhoods denoting them as locations. risk for mortgages. Neighborhoods are graded from “A” or best, to “D” for hazard, and are colored red.
Rachel Morello-Frosch, one of the paper’s authors, explains: “Neighborhoods in cities where the homeowner’s loan company maps, neighborhoods are mapped by the Homeowner’s Loan Company. However, air quality is worse than areas rated A or B,” said Rachel Morello-Frosch, one of the paper’s authors and a professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health. and the Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management.
The researchers looked at levels of two pollutants: nitrogen dioxide (a gas associated with emissions from vehicles and industrial facilities) and small particles known as PM 2.5. Both are regulated by the Clean Air Act.
“We see a really clear connection between the way these maps were drawn in the ’30s and the disparities in air pollution today,” said Joshua Apte, one of the paper’s authors and an assistant professor of air pollution. assistant professor of environmental engineering and environmental health sciences at UC Berkeley, told NPR. “And that’s not surprising, but it stands out.”
Clouds of smoke near an oil refinery are seen in front of the Wyoming State Capitol as an inversion that settled in Salt Lake City in 2018. The air we breathe kills thousands of Americans every year. five.
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Clouds of smoke near an oil refinery are seen in front of the Wyoming State Capitol as an inversion that settled in Salt Lake City in 2018. The air we breathe kills thousands of Americans every year. five.
Rick Bowmer / AP
Redlines’ legacy is troublesome and persistent
This study, by researchers at UC Berkeley and the University of Washington, is significant because it analyzes modern urban air pollution and historical recurrence at the national level. But many other studies have found other harmful effects of red skin. As previously reported by NPR, neighborhoods have historic red outlines hotter temperature and residents experiencing a range of health disparities.
Places that are assigned low scores tend to be places where ethnic minorities and immigrants live. Morello-Frosch says the language on the map is often clearly racist, with “remarks about the hopeless ‘heterogeneity’ of the neighborhood, resulting in lower ratings.”
The maps also reflect environmental factors – elements that intertwine between power and race. For example, a neighborhood will receive a lower grade if it already has industrial uses there.
Then federal maps and levels further complicated the matter, allowing more hazardous facilities that spew emissions to be located in the same neighborhoods. Now, people of color at all income levels in America are exposed to Air pollution levels are higher than average.
The researchers found that historic red isn’t the only factor affecting air quality: Race is also important. Even on the same level on the historical map, people of color experienced more severe air pollution in 2010.
“So it’s not like [redlining] “In fact, there’s a sizable disparity in whether whites feel air pollution is cleaner or people of color feel more air-polluted, regardless of class,” says Apte. ”
There could be several reasons for that. For example, whites living in an area formerly highlighted in red may live in a part of the neighborhood further away from a highway, and air pollution in a neighborhood can vary greatly. a lot of. The more polluted places in the area highlighted in red may have more people of color living in them.
The standard oil refinery in El Segundo, California, the El Porto neighborhood of Manhattan Beach, California, in the foreground, is seen May 25, 2017.
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The standard oil refinery in El Segundo, California, the El Porto neighborhood of Manhattan Beach, California, in the foreground, is seen May 25, 2017.
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Findings highlight legacy of structural racism
The Serious Health Effects of Air Pollution: The Air We Breathe kill thousands of Americans every year. Among the effects of nitrogen dioxide pollution are childhood asthma, heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer.
The difference between air quality in neighboring areas is significant – and noticeable. In terms of nitrogen dioxide measured in the cities in this study, “class D residences are on average 50% more polluted than class A. And in some cities, this number is more than twice as high. double,” Apte said.
“We know that these air pollutants…have adverse health consequences and legacies of structural racism – and are having consequences,” says Morello-Frosch. results for public health.
That’s why, she says, targeted approaches are needed to correct the sources of these pollutants – and the solution can’t just be to improve overall air quality. average body.
“We need to go beyond simple regional approaches to addressing poor air quality, to addressing inequality and persistent racial air exposure,” says Morello-Frosch. “Because while we can improve air quality for everyone in an area and reduce air pollution levels for everyone, very often by not taking an approach goals, that equity gap will persist, and some people will still not have the great public health benefits of air quality regulation like other regulations.
“Future strategies really need to take a targeted approach to closing the racist air quality gap we found in our study,” she said.
