An
Extra Air Pollution
Burden
2015
Like many cities in the eastern United States , Washington , D . C ., has seen major improvements in air quality in recent decades . Levels of fine particle pollution ( PM 2 . 5 ) have declined by roughly 50 percent in the city since 2000 due to passage of a series of clean air laws . Cleaner air has yielded significant health benefits . The number of DC residents killed by diseasess related to exposure to PM 2 . 5 ( chronic obstructive pulmonary diseasee , ischemic heart disease , lung cancer , and stroke ) declined by 50 percent during that period , according to a new NASA-funded analysiss of city-wide air quality and healthh data . However , the resulting health benefits have not accrued evenly , according to the researchers from George Washington University , the DC government , Boston University
,
Washington University in St . Louis , and Dalhousie University . By correlating hospital records with air pollution data from NASA satellites and DC Department of Energy & Environment ground-based stations , the scientists showed that populations with higher exposuree to fine particulate pollution and poor air quality had higher risks of health problems
.
“ Exposure to PM 2 . 5 and rates of certain health problems were highest in the southeastern , southwestern , and northeastern n quadrants of the city — areas thatt have historically had