Once-Redlined Neighborhoods Now Experience Higher Pollution Levels

Once-Redlined Neighborhoods , Now Experience Higher Pollution Levels.

NPR reports a new study has found that neighborhoods subjected to redlining during the 1930s now often experience heightened levels of air pollution.

Researchers reportedly analyzed air quality data from 202 cities in the United States.

Researchers reportedly analyzed air quality data from 202 cities in the United States.

Redlining was a practice used by mortgage appraisers and the government following the Great Depression.

Now deemed discriminatory, appraisers would draw lines around heavily Black and immigrant areas, denoting them as risky sites for home mortgages.

In redlining, neighborhoods would be denoted as "A" for best to "D" for hazardous, which would be in red.

We see a really clear association between how these maps were drawn in the '30s and the air pollution disparities today.

, Joshua Apte, study author and assistant professor of environmental engineering and health sciences at UC Berkeley, via NPR.

And that's not surprising, but it is very striking.

, Joshua Apte, study author and assistant professor of environmental engineering and health sciences at UC Berkeley, via NPR.

According to NPR, historically redlined neighborhoods experience higher temperatures and a range of health disparities.

Experts say the difference in the air quality between neighborhoods in the United States is alarming.

The D-grade neighborhoods on average experience 50% greater pollution than the A-grades.

, Joshua Apte, study author and assistant professor of environmental engineering and health sciences at UC Berkeley, via NPR.

The D-grade neighborhoods on average experience 50% greater pollution than the A-grades.

, Joshua Apte, study author and assistant professor of environmental engineering and health sciences at UC Berkeley, via NPR.

And in some cities, it's more than double.

, Joshua Apte, study author and assistant professor of environmental engineering and health sciences at UC Berkeley, via NPR.

And in some cities, it's more than double.

, Joshua Apte, study author and assistant professor of environmental engineering and health sciences at UC Berkeley, via NPR