Study: Black and Hispanic Americans Create the Least Pollution, Are Exposed to the Most
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A new study from researchers at the University of Minnesota quantifying “pollution inequality” (“the difference between the environmental health damage caused by a racial-ethnic group and the damage that group experiences”) exposes how air pollution disproportionately impacts Hispanic and black populations in the United States.
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study tracked the personal consumption of black, Hispanic and white people, along with the government. Researchers examined how this consumption contributed to the creation of air pollution exposure through the different demographics’ support of the systems that produce such pollution.
David Reichmuth, who contributed to the study, explained to CNN, “While the consumption of energy and products is driven by the consumer, that pollution is coming from the system that produces our electricity and produces our food and gets our goods around the country.”