Congress held a hearing last week on “the relationship between disproportionate exposures to environmental pollution and disproportionate effects of the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.” The spotlighted news hook for the hearing was a recent study published by Harvard researchers claiming that PM2.5 air pollution (soot/dust in the air) increases the risk of death from COVID-19.
Subcommittee Chair Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey) converted the study’s claim into an environmental justice issue under the further assertion that “EPA has a documented body of evidence that non-white people are at higher risk [of death] from PM2.5 because of higher exposures.” Pallone went on to blame PM2.5 with a higher rate of asthma emergency department visits among high poverty neighborhoods in New York City.
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