Car Pollution in Boston Area Neighborhoods Poses Health Risk To Residents, New Research Finds

Health Concerns/Benefits, Massachusetts, Opinions, Policy

October 7, 2019

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by Craig LeMoult (WGBH) This is the first story in a three-part series on transportation-related air pollution in the Boston area. Read Part 2 here and Part 3 here.

Highways are crucial arteries of our transportation system, but the air pollution from all those vehicles could pose a serious health risk to anyone living, working or going to school near a highway.

New research from a number of Boston-area universities shows transportation-related air pollution may be even more harmful than previously understood, leaving some of society’s most vulnerable at greater risk for heart attack and stroke.

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Jon Levy of Boston University says that’s what happened in low income communities around the state. He leads a research team that’s also studying where this pollution is and the inequity behind who’s being exposed.

“The lower your income, in general, the higher your level of pollution exposure,” Levy said.

Levy’s research also found minorities in Massachusetts are breathing in more of this stuff than white people because of living in communities with greater exposure. And those with lower educational attainment have more exposure than more educated people. Massachusetts is currently working with eight other states to develop a policy for reducing the region’s transportation emissions.

But even if the state can figure out how to do that, it’s going to take some time. And some, like Somerville resident Ellin Reisner, said we need to limit exposure now. READ MORE

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