For many decades, it’s been known that communities of color are exposed to more air pollution than their predominantly white counterparts.
For many decades, it’s been known that communities of color are exposed to more air pollution than their predominantly white counterparts.
Now, a Colorado State University study has uncovered an even worse fact: People who live in the most racially segregated communities also tend to breathe a more insidious form of air pollution—made of a higher concentration of toxic metals like lead, cadmium and nickel—than people who live in more racially integrated communities.
The CSU study, published Nov. 1 in Nature Communications, provides a more detailed view of the inequalities in exposure to known air pollutants among different United States populations. It was led by Jack Kodros, former research scientist in the lab of John Volckens, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering who also has appointments in the Energy Institute, Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, School of Biomedical Engineering, and the Colorado School of Public Health.
« Populations living in racially segregated communities not only breathe more fine particle air pollution, they breathe a form of pollution that is much more concentrated in toxic, cancer-causing compounds, » Volckens said. « This is the unfortunate result of systemic racial and ethnic injustices, such as redlining, that have plagued our nation’s history.
