Take a deep breath of air. Is it fresh?
Unfortunately, for many in our community fresh air is not a guarantee. Where you live in our city plays a big role in how healthy your environment is. This is not just happenstance, this is by design.
As our city struggles to dismantle the systems of racism and oppression, there is one area that for too long has remained outside of the conversation – the health of the very environment in which we are living.
In my district, many people, especially children, are struggling to breathe. What more basic human right can there be but to have access to healthy breathable air?
A 2012 St. Louis Regional Health Commission study found that black children are 7.5 more likely than white children to visit the emergency room for asthma and 6.6 times as likely to be hospitalized for asthma. In parts of North St. Louis city and county, 1 in 5 children has asthma. Accessibility of care and factors within the home contribute, as well as socioeconomic factors, but pollution is just one more burden placed on the lungs of already vulnerable kids.
At the Normandy School District, an asthma bus has to make weekly visits to the school to address the high rates of childhood asthma. Meanwhile, new reports from the Missouri Hospital Association indicate that the pediatric asthma rates in our region are twice as high as the statewide average and emergency room visits were higher among children living in poverty.
This is an issue of environmental justice, where certain populations – predominantly black and low-income populations – are bearing a disproportionate burden of the pollution in our community.
This pollution comes predominately from our dependence on fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas, and it can be addressed – but polluters are putting big money towards maintaining the status quo. They use the usual baseless scare tactics to fool people into thinking they are on our side. No matter what they say, we know that children in this country should not be dying due to our energy consumption.
For this reason, I am standing up in support of the Clean Power Plan, the first ever standard set to reduce carbon emissions from coal plants, as well as a stronger smog and ozone health standard. Numerous studies show that communities of color most often bear greater health impacts from polluting sources and these impacts are being exacerbated by climate disruption. Just this year, the Surgeon General cited climate disruption to be a public health issue, largely due to the asthma impacts on burdened communities.
The Clean Power Plan presents us with an opportunity if we choose to take it. The obligation now falls to Missouri to draft a plan to reduce emissions, build local clean energy and create jobs. We must hold our leadership accountable for making sure that environmental and economic justice issues are at the forefront of this plan. We must move to the cleanest sources of energy that will protect young lungs, and build a responsible transition to a clean energy economy by bringing job training and opportunities to low income areas and communities of color.
Furthermore, we must make clear that those who fight against efforts to clean up our air and water and climate are those benefiting from a corrupt system. They are working to support a system that oppresses and marginalizes vulnerable people and puts their lives at risk so that they can continue to profit. We need to name this what it is – environmental racism.
We all need to continue to push for the strongest environmental standards as possible. I am going to continue to stand for a strong smog and ozone standard to limit emissions from vehicles and coal plants, as well as a strong Clean Power Plan to address carbon emissions and transition us to cleaner sources. Furthermore, I am going to push for Missouri to participate in the Clean Energy Incentive Program to help provide health benefits and bring energy efficiency programs to low-income communities in our state.
Clem Smith (D-Velda Village Hills) represents District 85 in the Missouri House of Representatives.
