WHAT WE MEAN WHEN WE TALK ABOUT STRUCTURAL RACISM:

Examining government air pollution and census data led researchers to conclude that disproportionate numbers of non-white people were exposed to potentially hazardous fine particle pollution from nearly all major U.S. emission sources. 

We caught up with one of the researchers involved in this study, Christopher Tessum, Assistant Professor in Civil Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois. 

On starting the study, Christopher said, "We're going to figure out which sources of air pollution are the most important for driving this disparity that's been, I'm certain for a long time, among racial-ethnic groups and air pollution exposure." 

Christopher said the findings surprised him. 

"It turns out that it's almost all the sources [fine particulate air pollution] that are contributing to this disparity," he said. 

Fine particulate air pollution is responsible for 85,000 to 200,000 excess deaths in the U.S., making it the most significant environmental cause of human mortality. 

"In our study, we look at the location of the pollution and the location of the people. What our results say... is that the people of color and the pollution are in the same place," Christopher explained. 

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