POLLUTION FOR THE POOR AND PEOPLE OF COLOR?

The Associated Press recently conducted an analysis of an Environmental Protection Agency database and, with the help of scientists, mapped the data to each neighborhood counted in the United States' 2000 census. The findings are revealing and show that low-income communities and people of color suffer the disproportionate and unfair burden of our nation's environmental pollution and the many health problems that come from bad air and water quality and toxic exposure.

The AP found, among many disturbing things, that people who lived where there was the most pollution were significantly poorer, less educated and more often unemployed than those elsewhere in the country. In fact, the AP says, African Americans are 79 percent more likely than whites to live where industrial pollution poses the greatest danger.

Why this happens sometimes has to do with past discriminatory land-use and development policies, and the fact that regulators often look at plants individually rather than cumulatively. Also, people up against big polluters have very little legal recourse since discrimination now has to be proved that it was intentional—a very hard thing to do in court.

For more information, read this MSNBC article about the AP study. And, this CNN article about neighborhoods fighting for cleaner air.