This data can inform solutions that reduce exposure and protect those that are most at risk. Better data can drive more equitable policiesīy understanding how air pollution impacts health at a local level, policymakers can focus mitigation efforts on areas with the highest burden. This type of analysis shines a light on pollution’s disproportionate impact in neighborhoods where social and economic stressors make people more susceptible to the negative impacts of pollution. By using local air and health data, our novel analysis pinpoints local-even street-level-differences in health harm that would otherwise be missed. Typically, information on air pollution’s health impacts is reported at a county, state, or country scale. More detailed information on our methods » For this assessment, researchers combined hyperlocal air data from Google Street View cars and satellites with information on the health effects of pollutants, population distribution, and underlying health problems. This study is a health impact assessment-a tool often used to incorporate public health into decision-making. See visually how air pollution contributes to new childhood asthma cases in the Bay Area By contrast, in an Oakland Hills neighborhood where more than 70% of the population is white, the fraction of childhood asthma from pollution is lower-about 1 in every 5 cases. In West and Downtown Oakland, where more than 70% of the population is people of color, we found a high impact of air pollution on childhood asthma-up to 1 in 2 new childhood asthma cases were due to traffic-related air pollution. This reflects the fact that communities of color often face higher air pollution levels, an environmental inequity stemming in part from decades of discriminatory housing and planning policies. On average, neighborhoods with higher percentages of residents of color experienced double the rate of asthma from traffic-related air pollution compared with predominantly white neighborhoods. While everyone is impacted by air pollution, we found stark racial and ethnic disparities in the health burden. Communities of color face higher asthma rate from pollution We estimate that lowering Bay Area pollution levels to the current regional median (mid-point) could save more than 1,000 lives and prevent 2,000 new childhood asthma cases. Reducing traffic-related pollution could have major health benefits. Exposure to this pollutant can result in the development and worsening of asthma and bronchitis, in addition to increased risk of heart disease. Nitrogen dioxide forms from vehicle emissions, and heavy duty trucks are a major source-particularly in California. Today’s traffic jams are still a far cry from the misery that defined life before the pandemic, when rush hour tied up just about every major corridor and in some particularly congested spots seemed to be a fact of life no matter the time or day.According to estimates from our study, more than 2,500 lives are lost and 5,200 children develop asthma every year due to traffic-related air pollution ( nitrogen dioxide) exposure in the Bay Area. Car volume on the bridge has topped 100,000 on four more days since then. The Bay Bridge is back to nearly three-quarters of normal volume - more than 100,000 people crossed the bridge on May 26, the first time the span had seen that level of traffic since shelter in place orders went into effect in March.
By last week, though, crossings had rebounded to just over two-thirds of pre-coronavirus levels across the spans. The number of cars crossing the Bay Area’s state-owned bridges was down by more than half at its lowest point in April, according to the commission’s data. “We sort of bottomed out in early April and have slowly but steadily been climbing,” said John Goodwin, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which operates the toll lanes. And the region’s freeway express lanes have resumed charging tolls, after collection was suspended in March because highways were traffic-free. The metering lights have been switched back on at the Bay Bridge toll plaza.
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