Air pollution and asthma are of great concern to many in our community. Nationwide, 1 in 11 people has asthma and is the most common chronic disease in children. Living in an area with high levels of air pollution makes it difficult for people with asthma to control their disease and prevent asthma attacks. The State of the Air Report from the American Lung Association of the 2022 reveals that 2.3 million children and almost 10 Millions of adults with asthma live in counties that received an F for at least one pollutant. More of 320,000 children and 1.4 million adults with asthma live in counties that suspend all three measures.
According to a report The recent 2021 of the World Economic Forum, global health costs related to air pollution are projected to rise from 21 billions of dollars in the 2015 to 176 billions in the 2060. This is a staggering number, given that air pollution can be reduced, and even prevented, with the application of policies and strict compliance with regulations by polluters.
For too many Latino communities /Hispanics in the United States and here in Kansas City, exposure to hazardous air pollutants represents a daily threat to health.
Although Latinos/Hispanics generate proportionally less pollution than whites, Latino/Hispanic children are approximately three times more likely than non-Hispanic white children to live in a county where air pollution levels exceed federal air quality standards. Nearly a third of Latino children live in counties where concentrations of hazardous air pollutants exceed the cancer risk level of 1 in 10,000.
This exhibition has terrible consequences; Latinos/Hispanics are twice as likely to visit the emergency department for asthma, compared to non-Hispanic whites. Latino/Hispanic children are 40% more likely to die from asthma, compared to Non-Hispanic Whites.
Kansas City is the second largest rail transportation hub in the country and Wyandotte County (Kansas City, KS) consistently ranks among the bottom of the 105 counties in Kansas for health measures such as life expectancy. Unfortunately, Armourdale, a Wyandotte County neighborhood with a majority working-class Hispanic/Latino population, has a life expectancy of 22 years younger compared to other areas of the Kansas City metro area. That’s a lifetime of difference.
In the 2021, Clean Air Now conducted a truck count at two different locations in Armordale for two hours each. The first location was at Bill Clem Park, where 149 trucks were counted between 9 and 11 in the morning, with an average of 1.24 trucks per minute. At the second location, between US-69 and Kansas Avenue, between 11: 45 and the 13: 46 were counted 415 trucks, with an average of 3.46 trucks per minute. This constant flow of heavy vehicle traffic poses a major health risk to Armourdale residents, emitting significant amounts of nitrogen oxide, a respiratory irritant and a precursor to smog and lung-damaging particulate matter.
Because distressed and environmental justice communities often don’t have regulatory air monitors nearby, EPA is missing many of the top pollutants residents are exposed to on a daily basis. The community has the right to know the quality of the air they breathe and has the right to hold polluters accountable when the air quality is poor and negatively impacts the health of their families. It is time for the EPA, our local government, and polluters to treat truck pollution like the public health crisis that it is.
Addressing the structural inequalities driven by systemic racism is a must to eliminate health disparities such as pediatric asthma. The results of a recent study show that there is a serious racial and spatial disparity in pediatric asthma in Kansas City. Higher rates of pediatric asthma were found to be associated with social and environmental risk factors that can be attributed to historical residential racial segregation and uneven development within the city.
Right now we have an opportunity to address the air pollution crisis in our communities, reduce air pollution exhaust ducts and reduce exposure to hazardous air pollutants in our communities by strengthening clean and medium- and heavy-duty vehicle standards. Technology is advancing rapidly and we can move towards an electric fleet, but this must be done in a way that prioritizes environmental justice and overburdened communities. The application of these standards must also take into account the life cycle of the contamination, from source to manufacturing, via tailpipe and waste, and all potential impacts throughout that system. The federal government must lead the transition from its own vehicles to an electric fleet, including the US Postal Service.
Now is the time. We need government, industry, and large-scale polluters to pave the way for renewable energy. We need investment in electric charging stations that are accessible to environmental justice communities. Our communities deserve no less. At stake is the quality of the air we breathe and the health of our lungs.
Resources/References:
- 2021, CleanAirNowKC: Building Community Power by Improving Data Accessibility https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.11633.pdf
- 2021, CAN and UCS: Environmental Racism in the Heartland Report https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/environmental-racism-heartland
- 2022, Revealing the racial and spatial disparity in pediatric asthma: a Kansas City Case Study Kane N. doi: .2015/j.socscimed.2022 114543. Epub 2021