WHYY
By
The Chester Covanta incinerator, a waste-to-energy facility that burns trash from Delaware County, Philadelphia, New York City, and others, seen from Lewis Street in Chester, Pa. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
As the weather warms, many people open their windows to welcome spring breezes into their homes. For some residents of Chester, however, that’s not part of the plan.
“Right now, we’re suffering under the effects of environmental racism in our city of Chester, Pennsylvania,” said Zulene Mayfield, who chairs the group Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living.
Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility, a waste-to-energy site in Chester owned by Covanta Holding Corp., incinerates about 3,500 tons of trash a day. It is one of the largest such facilities, and a 2019 study concluded it was one of the largest polluters of its kind in the country.
Majority of Air Pollution Hurts Communities of Color More
gizmodo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gizmodo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Abstract
Racial-ethnic minorities in the United States are exposed to disproportionately high levels of ambient fine particulate air pollution (PM
2.5), the largest environmental cause of human mortality. However, it is unknown which emission sources drive this disparity and whether differences exist by emission sector, geography, or demographics. Quantifying the PM
2.5 exposure caused by each emitter type, we show that nearly all major emission categories consistently across states, urban and rural areas, income levels, and exposure levels contribute to the systemic PM
2.5 exposure disparity experienced by people of color. We identify the most inequitable emission source types by state and city, thereby highlighting potential opportunities for addressing this persistent environmental inequity.
E-Mail
Nearly all types of fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) emission sources disproportionately affect people of color in the U.S., according to a new study conducted with data from 2014. In contrast, Whites experienced lower than average PM2.5 exposure in 2014 and were only disproportionately affected by one sector - coal electric generation. The authors note that people of color at every income level experienced disproportionately high exposure to PM2.5, suggesting these disparities are not simply tied to economic differences. While it has been known that U.S racial-ethnic minorities experience disproportionately high PM2.5 exposure, the relative contributions of different types of PM2.5 emission sources to this disparity have remained unknown. To investigate, Christopher Tessum and colleagues used an air quality model to estimate emissions from 5,434 PM2.5 source types listed in the 2014 EPA National Emissions Inventory. They grouped these source types into 14 source sect
vimarsana © 2020. All Rights Reserved.