Work begins in Minnesota to reverse pollution’s toll on Black health

[rangerrebew]

Work begins in Minnesota to reverse pollution’s toll on Black health

With legislation and activism, Minnesota’s communities of color are fighting back against policies and practices that endanger their health. “If a lot of white kids were dying from asthma attacks, we’d hear more about it,” a woman raised in Rondo says.




By AVA KIAN and MINNPOST
FEBRUARY 18, 2023
 
This story was originally published by MinnPost. It’s part three in a four-part series on health conditions affecting Black Minnesotans. You can read Part I, about breast cancer disparities, here. Part II on sickle cell disease here.

Zhara Danelle Dooley grew up in the historic Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, very close to Interstate 94.

And for as long as she can remember, she’s had asthma.

“I grew up next to a highway,” she said. “You never really think about it because it’s just part of life. It’s not a big deal. But then, when you think about how bad the air quality can be, that’s a big thing.”


While Minnesota is in  the top 50 percent of U.S. states for lung health, Black Minnesotans face stark health disparities compared to white Minnesotans. One reason: When it comes to lung health in Minnesota, there’s a line connecting it to air pollution exposure

https://sahanjournal.com/news-partners/minnesota-pollution-air-quality-asthma-environmental-racism/

[rangerrebew]

I always felt pollution was a part of the vast right-wing conspiracy racist plot against blacks!

[Kamaji]

Here's a news-flash:  get a job, work your way up, get a better job, and then move the f**k away!!!  And stay in school; getting an education is the best tool for getting yourself out of that mess.

Why is that so god-d*mned hard for these people to figure out?

[andy58-in-nh]

If that train had derailed in East St. Louis instead of northeast Ohio, our government would be all over it.

[Free Vulcan]

We had slavery, Jim Crow, the welfare plantation, and now the woke plantation.

Blacks have become like cloistered nuns, corralled and hidden out of sight, treated almost like they are a different species incapable of surviving out the outside world, so that the white woke Left can trojan horse any Marxist policy they wish on America.

If any Black that disagrees, then the white woke Left will deem you not Black and throw them off the plantation.

[Kamaji]

We had slavery, Jim Crow, the welfare plantation, and now the woke plantation.

Blacks have become like cloistered nuns, corralled and hidden out of sight, treated almost like they are a different species incapable of surviving out the outside world, so that the white woke Left can trojan horse any Marxist policy they wish on America.

If any Black that disagrees, then the white woke Left will deem you not Black and throw them off the plantation.

They won't throw black dissenters off the plantation; they'll attempt to put them into solitary confinement on the plantation, to keep them hushed up.

[Free Vulcan]

They won't throw black dissenters off the plantation; they'll attempt to put them into solitary confinement on the plantation, to keep them hushed up.

I like that better. 

[DefiantMassRINO]

Government isn't going to put public housing on the most desirable lots in the most desirable neighborhoods.

Government - aka "Urban Renewal" - red lined poor neighborhoods, because they didn't have money, power, and influence.  The descrimination wasn't strictly racial; some was based upon class.

[Smokin Joe]

It dawns on me that there are other pollutants a poor baby might be exposed to, including various types of smoke that adults consume and the various scents that might be employed to disguise or cover those aromas.
I can't walk down the aisle in Walmart with the scented candles, not and breathe well by the other end--I just avoid it.
Not accusing anyone, but what are the effects of second hand smoke on junior, there?

And I'm not just talking about tobacco.

[roamer_1]

I can't walk down the aisle in Walmart with the scented candles, not and breathe well by the other end--I just avoid it.

Me neither, nor an aisle to either side. Same in soap and perfume.

Gag-worthy. why anyone would put all that stink in their house is entirely beyond me. 

[Smokin Joe]

Me neither, nor an aisle to either side. Same in soap and perfume.

Gag-worthy. why anyone would put all that stink in their house is entirely beyond me. 

But they do, and I wonder if that isn't part of the problem with the kids. They're down there, next to that carpet full of perfume, wrapped in blankets and clothes coated with 'that fresh scent', and stuff that's been sprayed with stuff that you are not supposed to put on your pets when they smell funky.

Is it any wonder the kids can't breathe?

[roamer_1]

But they do, and I wonder if that isn't part of the problem with the kids. They're down there, next to that carpet full of perfume, wrapped in blankets and clothes coated with 'that fresh scent', and stuff that's been sprayed with stuff that you are not supposed to put on your pets when they smell funky.

Is it any wonder the kids can't breathe?

That's right... Add to that not allowing the kid to mess with what they say stinks, that they cover up with all that store bought stink.. Like smelly old dogs and such... and I think you have a point.

[rustynail]

Highways cause weight gain in Blacks.  It's Science.

[Fishrrman]

RINO observes:
"Government isn't going to put public housing on the most desirable lots in the most desirable neighborhoods."

Not YET.
Expect this to change in the blue states within the next 10-15 years.

Isn't HUD already attacking the concept of "exclusive" zoning?