“Asthma is an environmental justice issue. Because of Connecticut’s history of red-lining, exclusionary zoning, and other racially-motivated policies, traffic and industrial pollution is concentrated in communities of color. This leads to asthma hospitalization rates that are 2 to 3 times higher among Black and Latinos in Connecticut and asthma death rates that are 8 times higher among Black children when compared to white children. We must adopt policies that improve health for all, address climate change and also reduce health disparities. We must set specific statewide pollution reduction targets and allow our state environmental agency to deny permits for new pollution sources in overburdened communities, as bills SB 1145 and SB 1147 propose.”
- Mark Mitchell MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Climate Change, Energy, and Environmental Health Equity at George Mason University and Co-chair of the Connecticut Equity and Environmental Justice Advisory Council |