Overlapping Inequalities & Industrial Air Pollution

Manufacturing facilities, mining sites, and even electric power plants emit toxic air pollutants. This industrial air pollution often carries negative health consequences for people who are exposed.

Yet the risk of exposure is not equal across the United States. We conducted a study to measure exposure to industrial air pollution across different neighborhoods.

Exposure to air pollution differs widely across neighborhoods based on racial makeup, income level, and urban or rural location. This difference is stark. We found a 45-fold difference between the most and least exposed neighborhoods.

Activists and previous researchers have drawn attention to the ways in which communities of color and poor neighborhoods experience greater exposure to environmental problems such as air pollution and water contamination—also known as environmental injustices. We wanted to know if air pollution exposure is higher for communities facing multiple forms of injustice. Our study incorporates data from the Environmental Protection Agency and the American Community Survey on neighborhoods across the U.S. to answer this question.

Read more about it here.