Toxic Race Matters: Study Shows Blacks, Latinos & Poor Americans Live Closest To Dangerous Chemical Plants

Do you live near a toxic chemical plant?

Study Shows Blacks Live Closest To Dangerous Chemical Plants

A new study finds that the Americans who live near hazardous chemical industrial facilities are disproportionately African American or Latino, are more likely to live in poverty, and have lower incomes and education levels than the national average.

Via HuffPo reports:

These trends accelerate rapidly as one gets closer to the “fenceline” areas nearest dangerous chemical plants.

More than 134 million people live in danger zones created by about 3,400 U.S. facilities that manufacture chemicals, produce paper, treat water, generate electric power, refine petroleum, or otherwise use or store hazardous materials. Millions more people work in or visit these areas.

The study examined the people living close to chemical plants and found:

The poverty rate for the fenceline zones is 50 percent higher than for the U.S. as a whole.

Average household incomes in the fenceline zones are 22 percent below the national average.

The percentage of adults in the fenceline zones with less than a high school degree is 46 percent greater than for the U.S. as a whole.

The percentage of blacks in the fenceline zones is 75 percent greater than for the U.S. as a whole.

The percentage of Latinos in the fenceline zones is 60 percent greater than for the U.S. as a whole.

The study was produced by The Environmental Justice and Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, a group of organization connected to the Coalition for Chemical Safety (in which I participant as an adviser to Greenpeace).

In the wake of the April 2103 West, Texas, chemical plant explosion, which killed 15 people and injured 160 more, President Obama issued an executive order directing federal agencies to improve the safety of our industrial chemical plants. The Obama administration is now conducting a review of these issues.

Today’s study defines this struggle: on the one hand, some of the wealthiest Americans, like the Koch brothers, pressing Washington to stop reforms to make chemical plants safer; and on the other, the poorest, least powerful people in society at greatest risk of harm or death from these facilities.

Discuss…