New Research on the Disparate Impacts of Air Pollution in the U.S.

Across multiple pollution types, in different locations, and across the decades, people of color in the United States suffer worse consequences of air pollution that white people, according to an expansive new study.

The research, published today with open access in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal, investigated air pollution exposure disparities by race, ethnicity, and income for multiple criteria of air pollutants and in multiple locations and time periods.

"For all years and pollutants, the racial/ethnic group with the highest national average exposure was a racial/ethnic minority group," according to the study's abstract.

"While overall pollutant levels have dropped since 1990, when Congress amended the Clean Air Act, people of color are still more likely to be exposed to all six pollutants than White people in all 50 states and D.C." -Maxine Joselow for The Washington Post.

Maxine Joselow picked up the news of the research for The Washington Post, placing the findings in context of the efforts by the Biden administration to "[steer] federal investments in clean energy toward communities that have borne the brunt of pollution for decades, including low-income neighborhoods and communities of color."