Air quality suffers in minority communities

Yawu Miller

Pollutants ranging from diesel fumes to mercury are circulating in the air in and above the state’s 352 communities, but not all are polluted equally, according to a study released by Northeastern University last week.

Communities where people of color make up the majority of the population average 48 hazardous waste sites per square mile, making air quality in those communities far worse than in predominantly white communities where the average is two per square mile.

“The striking inequities are placing working-class communities and people of color at a substantially greater risk,” said Daniel Faber, associate professor of sociology at Northeastern.

The concentration of polluting sites in communities populated by blacks, Latinos and Asians is widely thought to be a contributing factor in the elevated levels of respiratory ailments in those communities.

In Roxbury, where asthma rates are 178 percent of the state average, there are 123 pollution-generating sites per square mile, the tenth-highest concentration of such sites in the state. Those pollution-generating sites include the Dudley Station bus terminal, the Superfund-designated Modern Electroplating plant and trash transfer stations.

With diesel bus fumes, fumes from auto paint shops and other chemical-generating facilities, the air in Roxbury and other low-income neighborhoods is laden with toxins.

“In communities of color there are an average of 192,000 pounds of chemical pollution per square mile versus 19,000 in white communities,” Faber said.

The statistics uncovered in the Northeastern study suggest that the disparities between communities of color and white communities is growing, according to Faber, who released a similar report in 2001.

“The disparities are growing,” he commented. “There are more people of color in the state, but there are more hazardous waste sites, too.”

While the findings of the 2001 report were culled from information from the 1990 Census, this year’s report relied on data from the 2000 Census, which reflected an increased minority population in the state and many of its cities.

Of the 30 most polluted towns in the state, 24 have a majority population of people of color. The report also found that:

•Communities of color make up 9.4 percent of all towns in the state, but receive 37 percent of all industry releases of carcinogens, 32.8 percent of persistent, bio-accumulative toxins and 37.2 percent of all reproductive toxins.

•Low-income communities face a cumulative exposure rate to environmentally hazardous facilities and sites that is more than four times greater than higher-income communities in the state.

•Communities with high minority populations face a cumulative exposure rate to environmentally hazardous sites that is more than 20 times higher than in low-income communities.

Bob Terrell, board president of Alternatives for Community and Environment, says community activism has helped to close some polluting sites in Roxbury, but much remains to be done.

“We’ve had a lot of victories over the past few years,” he said, citing the closing of the Bartlett Street MBTA bus depot and the closing of illegal trash transfer stations. “But a great deal of work remains to be done.”