By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Environmental researchers confirmed in a study released last week that people in California breathe cleaner air today than they did 25 years ago, but Black and Latino residents are exposed to the highest levels of vehicle pollution in the state.

According to a new study published in Science Advances, large and longtime racial disparities in exposure to vehicle air pollution persist statewide. Although the state has implemented aggressive emissions policies to reduce air pollution by 65%. Scientists defined air pollutants as fine particulate matter in the air. Those pollutants are mostly emitted by cars, trucks, and other vehicles.

However, the study revealed that low-income communities, where residents are mostly Black and Latino, have the dirtiest air due to high levels of air pollution.

Joshua Apte, a senior author of the study acknowledged that California has implemented effective laws and policies to control emissions from cars as well as light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles.

“This is a tremendous win for public health, but our work isn’t done, because there’s been no narrowing of the relative gap between the most exposed and least exposed racial and ethnic groups,” he said.

The fine particulate matter polluting the air is linked to a variety of negative health effects and is estimated to cause over 5,000 premature deaths in the state each year. Cars and large vehicles are the main sources of exposure, trucks have a higher impact on low-income communities.

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Researchers attributed the poor air quality in communities of color to racist housing policies such as redlining that people of color live closer to highways and ports, far away from predominantly white communities. Recent findings in the study indicated that only reducing car emissions is not enough to improve the air quality to healthier levels.

Apte, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health, said that disparities in air pollution have remained constant in Black and Brown communities.

“One of the things that we’ve learned through this work is that we’re not actually going to get rid of the relative disparities from vehicles, even when they’re all electric because things like tires and brakes will still give off emissions,” he said.

The researchers stated that reducing air pollution requires paying more attention to systemic factors such as shifting where emissions occur. The scientists recommended that the state accelerate the adoption of zero-emission cars and trucks to reduce disparities in low-income communities.

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