hispanic

September 7, 2023

US failing to account for full extent of drinking water concerns in vulnerable communities

By Carey Gillam

US environmental regulators are failing to adequately account for how extensively vulnerable communities are exposed to contaminated drinking water, a new study has determined.

From 2018-2020, one in ten people in the United States were exposed to water quality violations that could impact their health, the study found. And roughly 70% of those affected are considered “socially vulnerable” under a range of factors that include race, language, disability, and housing vacancy rates.

The exposure risk was particularly noteworthy for Hispanic populations throughout the southwest and southcentral US. And when looking at people living on tribal lands, the numbers were more alarming: three in ten people were exposed to health-based water quality violations, the researchers found.

Overall, the number of people exposed to drinking water violations is more than three times greater than the number of people identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to the analysis. The authors note that current federal environmental justice tools leave out other factors important for identifying inequities in water quality.

“The current White House and EPA [environmental justice] tools do not seem to be appropriate for drinking water,” said lead author Bridget Scanlon, senior research scientist with the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas.

The findings add to evidence that broad swaths of the population are struggling to access clean drinking water, and they come at a critical time, as the Biden Administration and US states are deploying funds aimed at addressing drinking water access and quality around the country.

The EPA has pledged $50.4 million in funding for states to improve drinking water infrastructure for small, underserved, and disadvantaged communities. More broadly, the White House has earmarked more than $50 billion to improve US water infrastructure.

By not fully accounting for the people impacted by water quality violations, the program is in danger of falling short, the authors of the new paper warn.

August 25, 2022

Air pollution can raise risk of Covid-19 death 51%, study says

By Pam Strayer

People who are live in areas that come with long-term exposure to high levels of air pollution face a 50% higher chance of dying from Covid-19, and thousands of lives could have been saved during the pandemic if air quality standards were met, a new public health research study has found.

The study, which focused on California residents, is the latest of several exploring the impacts of air pollution on the incidence and severity of Covid-19 infections. And the research adds to a growing body of global research highlighting the importance of reducing air pollution.

The researchers determined that 9%, or at least 4,250 Covid-19 deaths could have been prevented if California met national air quality standards.

The most vulnerable people in terms of air pollution exposure were likely to be Latinos and those living in low-income areas, the researchers found.

The study, published in Environmental Advances, was authored by Paul English, director of the Public Health Institute and its “Tracking California” program, along with ten other researchers, including some affiliated with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) department of medicine and the UCSF department of epidemiology and biostatistics.

“People of color live in communities that have some of the worst air pollution and also have greater chances of getting sick and even greater chances of dying from COVID,” English said in a release announcing the study.

July 27, 2022

How going green, diet and communities of color intersect

As climate change and environmental pollutants create harsh conditions that threaten not only planetary health but also human health, a chorus of voices is calling for recognition of the benefits associated with reductions in meat consumption and a shift to more plant-based dietary patterns.

Going “green” is a concept that is taking root in myriad measures, from efforts to reduce the burning of greenhouse gases to vertical farming practices that grow crops in urban and indoor settings. And healthy, plant-based diets are at the center of many of the moves.

For certain populations, the shift is seen as particularly urgent. Many serious diet-related health problems, including heart disease and diabetes are top causes of death for Black and Latino populations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

But pushes for dietary changes in the general U.S. population are also creating concerns about the potential for ever sharper divides between those who have the financial means and access to move to healthier diets, and those who do not.

“You can’t just implement one policy and expect a lot of these historic patterns to change, there needs to be multiple different shifts to the way that our economy works,” said Nicole Wong, climate resilience program manager at The Greenlining Institute, an organization aimed at helping “communities of color” become “ready to meet the challenges posed by climate change.”