New York’s Climate Change Laws Could Turn the Tide on Asthma
Declining public health in urban areas is becoming a major indicator of the impacts of a changing climate
New Yorkers will soon be able to breathe a cleaner sigh of relief, thanks to a collection of pollution-cutting laws the city council passed last month.
The bundle of legislation, green-lit by New York’s City Council on April 18, aims to limit the city’s environmental impact starting in 2022. The biggest piece of the act will curb air pollution from buildings, which are the largest emitters of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.
“This is our water, this is our air, these are our buildings.” — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
Beginning in 2021, New York will become the first city in the United States to have congestion pricing, where drivers will pay a toll if they travel into certain areas of Manhattan during peak traffic hours. While the city has a year to conduct research and consult with the public, it’s a major step in cutting carbon pollution.
Rising temperatures can exacerbate respiratory and cardiovascular health conditions, according to a 2016 report by the National Center for Health Statistics. When summer temperatures heat the chemical fumes from car exhaust and buildings, it creates a smog of ground-level ozone gas.
This mixture of gases, extreme heat and particulate matter can cause asthmatic conditions in children and adults.
This is especially the case in lower-income areas of cities and communities of color, since people in these regions can rarely afford to move away from polluted areas such as near busy roadways and manufacturing plants. Closing windows at home doesn’t work when the heat waves hit, either. Many simply can’t afford to pay higher electricity bills to run the air-conditioner all summer.
Freshman Congresswoman, prominent leader and vocal supporter of the Green New Deal, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) represents the South Bronx and western neighborhoods in the county of Queens. Her district is separated by the East River.
The congresswoman’s constituents have the highest rates of asthma in all five boroughs.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asthma is a lifelong disease that affects the lungs, causing repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and nighttime or early morning coughing.
“I remember when we first started talking about a Green New Deal, people would say, why would a community or a district that represents the Bronx or Queens care about the environment,” shared Ocasio-Cortez during the Green New Deal 5K event her office hosted in Astoria Park in Queens on April 27.
“All you have to do is look to see exactly what kind of community we are,” she said to an excited crowd. “ We’re a frontline community.”
“This is our water, this is our air, these are our buildings,” she continued. “We can leave it better for the next generation and we will leave it better for the next generation.”
Environmental and public health organizations across the city are hopeful that this climate legislation will finally slow this rising trend of respiratory health effects from both pollution and climate change.
“The Bronx, the South Bronx in particular, has some of the highest rates of asthma,” said Dr. Colette Barrow, the Director of Funded Programs for NYC Health at Lincoln Hospital. Its located in the densely-populated and mainly low-income neighborhood of Mott Haven.
“At our hospital we have the asthma community health worker program. Patients who are high risk, who have severe asthma, or aren’t managing their asthma well, are referred to this program,” she explained while walking past a NYCHA Bronx waste management truck.
“Our health workers go into their home to do an environmental assessment to see if there are any triggers like pets and mold.”
Serious and detrimental health issues like asthma can arise in children and adults, depending on the amount of and exposure to respiratory irritants in their environment.
“It’s a collective struggle.” - Anthony Del Orbe, West Bronx Activist.
Allergens are a big trigger for asthma. With more moisture in the air, shorter winters and earlier spring seasons due to climate change, plants are producing more pollen sooner and longer than before, resulting in more people being affected.
And since plants need carbon dioxide to grow, the rise in emissions from the fossil fuel industry is more food on the table for notorious allergen plants such as ragweed.
Allergic bronchitis and bronchial asthma are also critical health complications that can result from long-term exposure to environmental triggers and insufficient care.
Furthermore, these serious health impacts from greenhouse gas emissions are not evenly distributed across the region.
“More pollution is produced in the urban areas because of traffic and other point sources,” explained Dr. Perry Sheffield, a pediatrician at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
“The ozone we make in the city ends up on Long Island, resulting in more ozone and asthma-related emergency department visits for kids,” Sheffield explained. She studies the rise and effects of pollen, pollution, asthma, and allergies in children and young adults. “What we’re burning has a huge impact.”
Aditi Varshneya has seen the same effects in her own neighborhood. “Air emissions in West Harlem rose above allowable levels when the Riverbank Wastewater treatment plant was built,” said Varshneya.
As the community organizer and outreach coordinator for the non-profit environmental watchdog group WEACT for Environmental Justice, she’s quite familiar with the health impacts from pollution and the climate crisis, and how people coming together can lead to change.
“After the community protested and blocked traffic on Riverside Drive, the Department of Environmental Protection finally created some protections.” However, Varshneya added, the fight for clean air must continue.
Even with the passing of the city’s climate mobilization act, they have to remain focused on ensuring the city makes good on its promise.
“It’s a collective struggle,” shared Anthony Del Orbe following the Toxics and Treasures Walk led by Varshneya and Genesis Abreu.
As an activist and organizer in the West Bronx and Harlem, 30-year-old Del Orbe is fighting to get his community proper access to nutritional food, green urban spaces and energy-efficient accommodations.
“It’s all tied in,” he continued. “We have to work for the environment, and we gotta tell the youth. They are the ones to carry the torch next.”
