Minority students are getting choked out by air pollution in Utah
Students of color in Salt Lake County are disproportionately exposed to air pollution,
according to research recently published in Environmental Research. The University of Utah researchers behind the study measured air quality throughout
the county and found that schools with more students of color experienced the most
air pollution, even on days where the air quality was deemed “clean” by the state’s
Department of Air Quality. The findings point to a troubling consequence of long-standing
segregation of people of color that can be seen in Utah and across the country.
“Like other U.S. cities, Salt Lake has a history of racial and ethnic segregation, which is still reflected in contemporary patterns of settlement,” senior author Sara Grineski, PhD, an associate professor of sociology and environmental studies at the University of Utah, tells OneZero.
Additional Coverage
Inequitable exposure to air pollution in local schools, and the data on pandemic air quality