CJTC Report: Still Toxic After All These Years
This report, prepared for BAEHC by the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community (CJTC), at U.C. Santa Cruz, analyzes air pollution data and demography in the San Francisco Bay Area and finds that low-income, people of color and immigrants are disproportionately exposed to toxic air pollution and its associated health risk. The city of Richmond, California had one of the highest estimated air pollution risks in the region.
Read a BAEHC fact sheet or a BAEHC news release on the CJTC report.
Get a copy of the report at the CJTC web site.
County Map of Bay Area Air Pollution Inequities
In addition to the analyses presented in the CJTC Report (see above), BAEHC uses air pollution and U.S. Census data compiled by government agencies to produce maps illustrating the environmental inequities that exist in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Here is an example of a map that utilizes air pollution cancer risk information developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of its National Air Toxics Assessement, or "NATA" for 1999. The map indicates the average air pollution risk in each of the Bay Area counties along with the percentages of people of color living in each county (based upon the 2000 census).
Although the NATA data are from 1999, the distribution of air pollution sources and risks in the Bay Area are likely to be similar today. As BAEHC's campaign develops, we will be producing additional maps and data to help demonstrate the need for government agencies to develop and implement environmental justice policies.
Diesel Pollution and Environmental Injustice in Bay Area Census Tracts
Diesel particulate matter, or "DPM," is a form of air pollution generated by the use of many types of equipment that run on diesel fuel. Sources of DPM emissions include: diesel trucks, buses, construction equipment, ships, trains, emergency-backup electric generators, etc.
On an area-wide basis, DPM pollution is believed to be the largest contributor to air pollution related cancer risk in the San Francisco Bay region. BAEHC produced this chart to illustrate the environmental justice issues that are associated with this large source of risk.
The chart is based upon year 2000 estimated DPM emissions data for various pollution sources that was developed by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District as part of its Community Air Risk Evaluation (CARE) program. Census tract demographic data was obtained from the U.S. Census 2000 summary files, SF-3. To prepare the chart, we took the DPM emission estimates from the CARE database, which were for 2 x 2 kilometer blocks throughout the Bay Area, and allocated these values to census tracts using geographical information system (GIS) software.
BAEHC plans to update the chart with 2005 CARE data as soon as it is made available to us.