From my medical office, I can look out and see a very elaborate air filtration system glinting on the roof of a nearby middle school. It reminds me of the Bilbao Guggenheim. This is the air filtration system that now sits atop Harriet Tubman’s Middle School, in large part thanks to a study co-led by my upcoming Monday podcast guest, Dr. Linda George, PhD of Portland State University. When I started the journey on becoming a lung doctor, I never really thought that I’d be interviewing an atmospheric chemist. I also never thought I would have to learn so much about how diesel affects human health, but after treating so many former truck drivers, construction workers, etc in my practice, I find myself viewing the world in a different way. We are all entirely vulnerable to what is in the air we breathe, and I learn every day that we could have fewer of us lung doctors if we just cleaned up our air.
One of the most important examples of this is Harriet Tubman Middle School in North Portland, the school I can see from my office. Situated in the heart of the historic African American community in Portland, Oregon, it also sits under airport traffic, near to Port activity, and 50 feet (yes feet) from I-5. I think of the generations of students who went to the school breathing toxic air, and it is hard to know what long-term damage might have been done to these children and communities. We know that in general whiter and wealthier communities pollute, and the pollution is breathed in by poorer communities and communities of color. One study of the US showed that non-Hispanic whites experience about 17% less air pollution than they produce, while Black and Hispanic communities experience a burden of pollution that is 56-63% in excess of the pollution they produce.
It is also telling that a study of the toxic air around Tubman was only financed after this area began to gentrify and a whiter community has moved in. The problem was obviously there all along, but it was not deemed worthy of attention and funding until a more privileged group was able to advocate for it. The study of the air revealed that some components of traffic pollution, namely acrolein, benzene and naphthalene, all known carcinogens, were elevated above levels that have been deemed “safe.” However, the scientific community has also begun to increasingly question levels that are deemed “safe,” since in the case of particulate matter, even levels below those deemed safe have been shown to cause disease and kill people. It is certainly an excellent step forward that a sophisticated air filtration system now filters the air inside the school, however the children still play outside, and many families live in the area and have grown up here for generations.
I also worry a great deal about all the people suffering from a lack of housing, who are living in tents by freeways and other roads. Many people who lack housing also suffer from multiple other medical conditions, and I worry about their health in the short and long-term from living so close to sources emitting black carbon and particulate matter. We have many challenging problems in our communities, addressing air pollution and climate change and housing is hard, but overall it is more expensive to ignore these issues. It is expensive in terms of lost human capital, sick days, increased health care expenditures, and truncated human potential by exposing children to toxins early in life. I can see an example of this every day out my office window when I see the air filtration system atop Tubman, while I know that my patients and I are breathing essentially the same air when we walk outside. If we want everyone to be healthy, we can either try to filter everyone’s air, or just emit less pollution in the first place.
Please stay tuned for the podcast on Monday, and feel free to share your thoughts with me on the comments section below or record a question or message for the podcast on the Anchor site.
Twitchy Airways Club Members– Communities of color often bear a disproportionate asthma burden. A significant amount of this is likely attributable to breathing poor air quality. To decrease our community burden of obstructive airway disease, we need to work to decrease air pollution, and ensure access to affordable medications to manage airway diseases.
References:
Air quality at Tubman- Gall and George et al. Indoor and outdoor air quality at Harriet Tubman Middle School and the design of mitigation measures: Phase I report. 2018.
Di et al. “Air Pollution and Mortality in the Medicare Population.” NEJM 2017– study of Medicare beneficiaries where mortality trends continue below “safe” levels
KOIN story on camping- source of tent image
Great post! Thanks for the info
Of course! Clean air for kids is of foundational importance for a long and healthy life. We know that as particulate matter goes down, kids have increased lung function. Imagine less asthma and airways disease in our communities!