Transportation Risk Factors

AIR POLLUTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Studies suggest that long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution common to many metropolitan areas is an important risk factor for the development of cardiopulmonary diseases (i.e. asthma, bronchitis) and lung cancer mortality (Rios, et al., 2004; Pope, et al., 2002). Individuals most at risk from exposure to such air pollution are children, asthmatic adults and children, individuals with pre-existing heart or lung disease and the elderly (US EPA, 1997). Fine particle air pollution often comes from fuel combustion power plants, vehicle emissions, diesel buses and trucks, construction and demolition activities. Individuals living in urban communities located near major construction and demolition projects and/or near major interstate highways may be disproportionately impacted from air pollution exposures.

Though environmental quality and impact are still primary concerns in environmental justice determinations, over time EJ has come to be more broadly interpreted to include the assurance of equity in the planning for and distribution of public resources and their resultant opportunities . In the particular case of transportation plans and investments, therefore, an environmental justice determination would not focus simply on the negative health burdens of a transportation project on a particular population segment, but would also need to demonstrate that the distribution of transportation benefits — access, mobility or service quality — were not disproportionate to one group versus another. In that same vein, satisfactory achievement of environmental justice requirements would need to demonstrate that all affected parties had equal access to information and opportunity to participate in project planning and decision-making.