Place matters: residential racial segregation and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Balmes JR
• Description:
  The combination of the striking racial disparities in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outcomes and the tragic series of the deaths of Black people caused by police violence during the pandemic has brought unprecedented attention to the structural racism that persists in the United States. Segregation by race and ethnicity is a prominent feature of American cities that has not diminished over time despite civil rights laws. Black-segregated neighborhoods have been disproportionately burdened by many adverse social, economic, and environmental factors. Historical "redlining" was a federally promoted program during the 1930s and 1940s that inflicted severe and permanent economic harm to communities of color by systematically denying residents home mortgage loans. This overtly racist policy deprived Black families of legacy wealth as home property has been the primary vehicle for accumulating such wealth and is one of the major reasons for the Black-White income gap in the United States. Despite enactment of legislation to prevent segregation-promoting real estate practices, many formerly redlined neighborhoods remain very segregated. These neighborhoods are more likely to be characterized by poverty, greater exposures to air pollution, less green space, less access to healthy foods, more liquor stores, more violent crime, and poorer housing-all factors that contribute to heath disparities. For example, residents of the formerly redlined community of West Oakland have almost 7 years lower average life expectancy than the more affluent and White residents of the Oakland hills. ... In brief, racial segregation has been independently shown to be a fundamental cause of health disparities in general and in asthma in specific. Thus, it is not surprising that this consequence of structural racism has now been associated with COPD outcomes. The opportunity and challenge of this newly demonstrated association is for pulmonary healthcare providers to identify those at highest risk and intervene as early as possible to mitigate the health consequences of racial segregation. We have the responsibility to our patients and society at large to advocate for policies to reduce disproportionate exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollution, improve substandard housing, increase access to healthy foods and green space, and reduce exposure to community and police violence. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution Asthma Asthma, Occupational Economics Environmental Exposure Healthcare Disparities Occupational Health Race Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Racial factors; Asthma; Health disparities; Environmental exposure; Economic consequences; Socioeconomics; Policy; Air pollution; COPD; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• ISSN:
  1073-449X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  496-498
• Volume:
  204
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20065594
• Citation:
  Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2021 Sep; 204(5):496-498
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2021
• Performing Organization:
  University of California, Berkeley
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ba41533616fc6cea2cbed540f853bb207ac866e7ff9eac76291b17abd1d60c9fa36c66d38d4e404ea9ee5db1f50b13c52835435de91b231f7a7f73cc6f3cc209
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/249485/cdc_249485_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 575.29 KB ]