Photo by: Pixabay user Free-Photos.
Low-income communities often are exposed to more pollution than other communities, and bear greater health burdens from that pollution.
The Background: Researchers at Harvard Chan School have done several studies on pollutant exposure in low-income areas. In one, the researchers modeled exposure to nitrous oxide (NO2), and ultrafine particulates, both of which are byproducts of burning fossil fuels, across the greater Boston area. They then compared those exposure maps to the health of people living in those areas.
A second study interviewed participants from 20 low-income housing developments in the Boston area, and examined apartments for “household exposures,” like mold, combustion by-products from cooking, secondhand smoke, chemicals, pests, and inadequate ventilation. Researchers looked at the connection between these contaminants and the health of residents.
Results—Toxic Emissions: Researchers found that PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations were highest for urban non-Hispanic black populations compared to urban white populations. Urban Hispanic populations fared even worse: compared to non-Hispanic whites, they experienced more than 20% higher exposures. By looking at these inequalities over time, the study raises the possibility that social and demographic changes could affect decisions about land use, environmental policy enforcement, and other factors that influence emissions.
Results—Low-Income Housing: Researchers found that people who reported having health problems were more likely to live with household exposures. The study also found that indoor environmental conditions in multifamily housing tend to accumulate across apartments, and can be associated with poor health building-wide.
The Upshot:. Due to economic and social circumstances, lower-income and certain minority groups often live in areas with greater pollution: near major highways and industrial sites, for example, or even in apartments with poor ventilation and climate control.
Resources:
- Temporal trends in air pollution exposure inequality in Massachusetts
- Air Pollution Exposure Inequality Persists in Massachusetts
- Environmental Conditions in Low-Income Urban Housing
- Green Public Housing and Health
- Moving Environmental Justice Indoors
Health-related savings from increased walking and bicycling far exceed estimated transportation infrastructure costs
Research in the Journal of Urban Health shows that transportation infrastructure investments could save hundreds of lives and billions of dollars.
2020 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change: U.S. Policy Report
COVID-19 shows how no one is immune from converging health crises and that millions of lives can be saved with climate action.
Viewpoint: Encouraging health professionals’ civic engagement to address health impact of climate crisis
Health professionals who want to address the effects of the climate crisis on the health of people and the planet should become more civically engaged.
TRECH Project Research Update on Health Benefits of TCI Policy Scenarios
Exploring how different transportation policies could influence health through better air quality and increases in physical activity.
Moving Environmental Justice Indoors
The main drivers of indoor air quality in low income housing.
Environmental Conditions in Low-Income Urban Housing
Important findings related to the health of occupants in low income housing.
Green Public Housing and Health
Green public housing may reduce health risks from environmental pollutants.
EPA looks at tougher standards for key air pollutant that could affect Philadelphia
The Environmental Protection Agency will consider strengthening standards for harmful pollution from soot. In Philadelphia, people of color are more likely to live in neighborhoods with high levels of soot in the air.
The Turning Point
Our Yerby Fellow Renee Salas discusses how climate change is impacting the everyday health of African American, Latinx, and Indigenous Americans, and why she is hopeful that America is at a turning point.
The fight for environmental justice
Dr. Bernstein and Dr. Salas speak about their work to right the wrongs of decades of discriminatory policy.
Action Planet: Meeting the Climate Challenge
Our Director Dr. Aaron Bernstein joins Vice President Kamala Harris, Gina McCarthy, and others for a 1-hour Earth Day special, hosted by NowThis' Zinhle Essamuah.
What Earth Day means to our children
A healthier planet nurtures healthier young patients, says our Director Dr. Aaron Bernstein in his Earth Day Coverage column.
With COVID spread, ‘racism — not race — is the risk factor’
Harvard experts, including our Director Dr. Aaron Bernstein, take a hard look at health inequities.
Companies are promising to remove carbon — what about frontline communities?
In an op-ed, our researcher Jonathan Buonocore argues why companies' climate pledges must include emissions reduction strategies to protect frontline communities.
Biden aims to create climate, equity office at HHS
Our Health Equity Fellow Dr. Gaurab Basu says the Biden administration learned lessons about equity from COVID-19 and plans to apply them "to the greatest public health threat we face — climate change."
Q&A: Gaurab Basu on climate change, racial justice, and COVID-19
Our Health Equity Fellow Dr. Gaurab Basu discusses how a legacy of racist policies in the U.S. have left communities of color ill-prepared for climate change and why applying a racial justice framework to climate action is instrumental to overcoming these challenges and closing the equity gap.
COVID-19 and Climate Change: The Need for Equitable Solutions
Our Student Ambassador Jessica Schiff writes why we must enact equitable solutions to address root causes of disease and build equity.
Aaron Bernstein MD, MPH
Aaron examines the human health effects of global environmental changes with the aim of promoting a deeper understanding of these subjects among students, educators, policy makers, and the public.
Gaurab Basu MD, MPH
Gaurab's work focuses on the intersection of climate change, health equity, medical education, and advocacy.
