Effects of air pollution on health in communities of color in America

Air pollution describes harmful contaminants found in the air. Though some of it originates from natural sources such as volcanoes, it mostly comes from increased combustion of fossil fuels from industrialization and vehicles. The two main types of pollution are ozone pollution and particle pollution. Through education, awareness, and legislature air pollution in the US has improved; however, according to the American Lung Association, 166 million Americans are still living in communities located in with heavily contaminated air, most of whom are low-income or in a colored community.
Air pollution can cause a variety of health problems including, but not limited to infections, behavioral changes, cancer, organ failure, and even premature death. This article specifically will look at the correlation between air pollution and Asthma, cancer, and neuroplasticity and if there are any disparities in the impact of air pollution in different communities. Urban areas with a high concentration of ethnic groups such as Hispanics, Asians, African Americans or poor residents, have a greater chance to be exposed to dangerous compounds such as vanadium, nitrates and zinc in the air they breathe.
Environmental disparities generally divide into three separate categories: (1) Sociopolitical explanations in which hazardous facilities located in communities where they lack political capital to influence discussions (2) Market-based explanations in which people who live in polluted areas have lower property value (3) Racial discrimination in the placement of hazardous facilities.
As of the American election of 2017, Trump administration has proposed multiple policies and policy changes and that are projected to cause environmental damage and increase air pollution in the United States. Trump does not prescribe to global warming theories, hence the termination of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and removing all mention of climate change on government sites. Therefore, decreasing both funding for research and prevention which will only increase air pollution. Furthermore, he has been promoting the coal industry. An increase of coal use will greatly increase pollutants in the air, especially around the facilities, and the communities near the facilities, most of which are occupied by colored and low income families.
Asthma
As air pollution increases, symptoms of asthma have worsen. Asthma's etiology is poorly undrestood and currently has no cure. There are many environmental factors that attribute to asthma. The main sources of environmental pollution are the burning of fossil fuels in the combustion engines, dust generated by traffic on road surfaces, and biomass used for cooking and heating. In urban areas, air pollution has high particulate matter in nitrogen dioxide, ozone and volatile organic compounds - this can make breathing very hard. Young children who are exposed to air pollution in particular are extremely vulnerable. The average breathing pattern for an adult is 16 to 20 breaths per minute, while a 1-year-old child has a faster breathing pattern which is 20 to 40 breaths per minute.
Roughly seven million children suffer from asthma, meaning 1 out of every 10 children, and the rates have been steadily increasing. Among African American children, one out of six children suffer from asthma, which has rose from 50% since 2001. This issue of respiratory problems accounts for 88% of premature deaths in low-income to middle-class counties in America. Population-based studies have shown that communities with a high proportion of African Americans and Hispanics experience high rates of asthma.
In a study conducted by Yale University, 'Environmental Inequality in Exposures to Airborne Particulate Matter Components in the United States’ - Hispanics were exposed to 10 out of the 14 pollutants (e.g., 152% higher than whites for chlorine, 94% higher for aluminum), African Americans were exposed to 13 out of the 14 pollutants (e.g., 43% higher for zinc, 25% for vanadium), and Asians had higher exposures than whites (e.g., 103% for chlorine, 69% for vanadium, 64% for nickel). Some of the pollutants studied have been connected to asthma. In Bronx, New York, 66% of individuals who live in proximity of hazardous industrial facilities and waste sites are likely to be hospitalized for asthma. It has been reported that people who live within 1.86 miles of toxic waste facilities in the United States are people of color and twice as likely as white residents to live within a fence line zone of an industrial facility, contribute to air pollution, safety issues, and health concerns.
Making a connection between air pollution and asthma can be complex and challenging. In the attempts to reduce air pollution emissions from a power plant in Connecticut state, citizens pointed out increasing asthma in the community. However, with research evidence and expert opinion, the power plant responded that air pollution cannot be the cause of asthma because asthma rates have been increasing even as air quality has improved. Also, studies show that the risk of the respiratory infections and cancers caused by air pollution is not distributed equally in terms of race, class, and geographic placement.
Infections
Even though the association between air pollution and infections is unclear and require further research, some studies shows that the some air pollutants, such as secondhand smoking and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), may cause the infections. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), children have higher risk of lower respiratory tract infections, such as pneumonia and bronchitis, if their parents smoke. CPSC mentions that 150,000 to 300,000 children (under 18 month) are affected by the lower respiratory tract infections which leads to 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations each year based on the EPA estimation. CPSC also mentions that exposure to higher level NO2 or long term exposure to low level NO2 may have higher risk of infections.
Biological air pollution also can lead to the infectinos. Small, invading organisms in human body, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites, can affect the pulmonary system and have infections. There are variety of types of infections because many different organisms can cause the infections. Even though some studies found that the relationship between air pollution and infection is not clear, other studies show the association between them.
Cancer
Many studies found that both indoor and outdoor air pollution can increase the risk of respiratory cancer. Indoor pollution such as tobacco smoking is responsible to lung cancer. Outdoor air pollution also increase the risk of lung cancer. Especially, a study found that the combination of formaldehyde and benzene is responsible to 60 percent of cancer related health problems in the United States. Another study found that the hazardous air pollutant (HAP) can even associate with other cancer sites, such as cervix and the upper aero-digestive tract.
The cancer caused by air pollution is not equally distributed in the United States. The cancer incidence and death rates are higher in African Americans than other races. A study conducted in Greater Houston, Texas shows that Hispanic people and African-American people have higher risk of HAP cancer. People who live near the public transit exhibit have higher HAP cancer risk as well. Also, another study shows that highly segregated metropolitan areas has higher estimated cancer risk which is caused by the air pollution. This trend was found for all racial groups, but it was the strongest for the Hispanics.
A study conducted in 2000 used geographic census data and outdoor nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) concentration data to examine the disparities of NO 2 air pollution across the United States. The study found the disproportional disparities of NO 2 pollution in terms of both race and socioeconomic groups. The non-white people were exposed to 4.6 ppb higher average NO 2 concentrations than white people, those who live with below poverty level are exposed to 1.2 ppb higher NO 2 concentrations, and lower-income non-white people are exposed to 3.4 ppb higher NO 2 concentrations than the higher-income white people. The study also reports the disproportional disparities of NO 2 concentration by education level; those who without high school education are more likely to be exposed to higher NO 2 concentrations. The Association between NO 2 exposure and cancer development is found in a lot of studies.
The disproportional effects of air pollution on people’s cancer risk is seen not only by the race differences. Even within a single race community, there is an unequal distribution of cancer risks caused by the air pollution. Among the Hispanic population in Miami, Florida, the traffic-related cancer risks are unequally distributed in terms of socioeconomic levels and country of origin. The Hispanic community with lower incomes are more likely to have higher traffic-related cancer risks. Also, Hispanic people who are originally from Cuba and Colombia had higher risk of cancer caused by the traffic related toxins.
Central nervous system
Air pollution is traditionally associated with pulmonary problems, but it also affects the entire body. Nano-sized pollutants can enter the body by penetrating pulmonary tissue after it is inhaled and enter the blood stream via capillaries. Once inside the circulatory system, the heart will spread the pollutants throughout the body. One of the places these pollutants accumulate and affect is the brain and nervous system. The brain is constantly changing and growing throughout a person’s lifetime by reorganizing its synaptic connections in regards to its changing environment. According to a study in from 1986-2001 in Boston, children who were exposed to more black carbon did worse on the standardized tests they were given (Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning and the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test) in all subjects. In the study, there was also association found between increased black carbon levels, worse testing results and children who primarily spoke Spanish at home and have parents with lower education. A similar study conducted was conducted on inner New York City children. This time, the study looked at polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) (PM<sub>2.5</sub>) which is found in coal, tar, and incomplete combustion emissions. All of the children in the study were African American or Dominican and it was found that they have lower mental development index (MDI) scores and greater chances of having cognitive developmental delay than their Caucasian counterparts living in less polluted parts of the city.
Health problems
Air pollution components such as heavy metals and reactive oxygen species can cause central nervous system health problems ranging from neuroinflammation to memory disturbances to Parkinson’s. A study showed that residents aged 54.7 ± 4.8 years from highly polluted cities have significantly higher gene expression for an inflammatory gene in their brain than residents in the same age group from less polluted cities. Though the mechanisms on how PM causes neuroinflammation, many studies hint that it there’s correlation between air pollutant caused neuroinflammation and development of Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer Disease.
Ozone-Related problems
Ozone is produced by naturally and artificially (vehicles, refineries, plants, etc.). It is a very strong oxidizing agent and when inhaled, it attacks tissues by modifying parts of cells and it can create potentially toxic by products. It was found that there is no correlation between ozone effects estimates for mortality and PM readings of an area. In other words, damage done by ozone and by PM cannot be considered the same. Extended periods of inhaling ozone causes neuron damage and death, motor deficits, and memory deficits in humans and animals. The same study also found that higher levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and nitric oxide (NO), both can undergo chemical reactions to form ozone, also can increase the chance of Autism in a child.

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