Exposure to air pollution is not the sole contributor to such stark health disparities . Other factors such as access to health care , smoking rates , chronic stress , and access to quality food likely play a role . “ There isn ’ t a one-to-one relationship between polluted air and poor health outcomes ,” said Castillo. “ But there is a large and growingg body of evidence that makes clear that air pollution hits disadvantaged communities harder because people in these communities are more likely to breathe polluted air and because baseline health disparities make exposure to pollution especially harmful .”
The researchers say that understanding the nature of the problem is just the first step . “ I hope that studies like this remind decision-makers . We should look carefully at where schools , senior centers , roads , and polluting industries are built to minimize exposure for vulnerable populations .” that there are ways we can address some of these longstanding inequities
Crawford
, who was an environmental engineer at NASA ’ s Goddard Space Flight Center before taking a job with the DC government , draws valuable pragmatic lessons from the research . “ The study underscores how essential it is that the city continue to demonstrate progresss on air quality . We need to continue to move toward electrification and make sure that the vehicles on the road are running as cleanly as possible and that industries are using clean technologies .” The satellite PM 2 . 5 data used in the study was developed by researchers from
Washington University in St . Louis and Dalhousie University . It is based on two decades of observations from NASA ’ s Moderate Resolution Imagingg Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ), Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer ( MISR ), and Sea-viewing
Wide Field-of-view Sensor ( SeaWIFS ). It also incorporates information from the GEOS-Chem model , a global 3-D model of atmospheric chemistry .
NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua
Stevens , using data courtesy of Castillo , M . D ., et al . ( 2021 ). Story by Adam Voiland
References & Resources
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American Lung Association ( 2012O
) Disparities in the Impact of Air Pollution .
Accessed November 5 , 2021 .
Castillo , M . et al . ( 2021 ) Estimating intra-urbann inequities in PM 2 . 5 -attributable health impacts : A case study for Washington , DC . Geohealth , 5 ( 11 ), e2021GH000431 .
District of Columbia ( 2020 ) Ambient Air Quality report . Accessed November 5 , 2021 . D . C . Policy Center ( 2020 , October 15 ) The geography of environmental toxins in the
District of Columbia . Accessed November 5 , 2021 . Environmental Protection Agency Air Quality Trends Show
Clean Air Progress .
Accessed November 5 , 2021 .