Within five miles of Kim Gaddy’s home in the South Ward of Newark, New Jersey, lies the nation’s third-busiest shipping port, 13th-busiest airport, and roughly a half-dozen major roadways. All told, transportation experts say, the area where Gaddy and her neighbors live sees an average of roughly 20,000 truck trips each day. Researchers cite the exhaust produced by all of that road travel as a major reason why asthma rates among Newark residents is about twice the national average.
” She added: “That is why we’re able to say that we’re really seeing the impacts of climate change showing up in this year’s report results.” The report found that 12 percent of Americans live in areas that received failing grades for all three types of pollution. The data also showed that people of color are more than twice as likely than their white counterparts to live in communities with poor air quality in all of those measures.