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.”
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