Disparities in PM2.5 air pollution in the United States
Cleaner skies
Particulate air pollution in the contiguous United States has decreased considerably over recent decades, but where exactly has that progress been made? Colmer et al. analyzed 36 years of data and found that the spatial distribution of fine particulate matter concentrations has remained largely unchanged over that interval (see the Perspective by Ma). Although, fine particulate pollution levels have dropped overall, those areas that were most and least polluted in 1981 remain so today. We may have made important strides in pollution control, but we have been less successful in addressing disparities of exposure between communities.
Abstract
Air pollution at any given time is unequally distributed across locations. Average concentrations of fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM2.5) have fallen over time. However, we do not know how the spatial distribution of PM2.5 has evolved. Here, we provide early evidence. We combine 36 years of PM2.5 concentrations measured over ~8.6 million grid cells with geographic, economic, and demographic data from ~65,000 U.S. census tracts. We show that differences in PM2.5 between more and less polluted areas declined substantially between 1981 and 2016. However, the most polluted census tracts in 1981 remained the most polluted in 2016. The least polluted census tracts in 1981 remained the least polluted in 2016. The most exposed subpopulations in 1981 remained the most exposed in 2016. Overall, absolute disparities have fallen, but relative disparities persist.
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Science
Volume 369 | Issue 6503
31 July 2020
31 July 2020
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Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
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Submission history
Received: 21 October 2019
Accepted: 9 June 2020
Published in print: 31 July 2020
Acknowledgments
We thank J. Meng for assistance in accessing the historical PM2.5 data. We thank anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Census Bureau. Funding: This study was not externally funded. Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to this work. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Data and materials availability: Data and code used in our analysis are available at (38).
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