PM 2.5 polluters disproportionately and systemically affect people of color in the United States
Open accessAbstract
Nearly all major emission categories contribute to the systemic PM 2.5 exposure disparity experienced by people of color.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
A recent study reported that people of color can be exposed to higher levels of PM2.5 from anthropogenic emission sources across rural and urban areas, income levels, and exposure levels.
“A recent study on PM2.5 exposure reported that people of color can be exposed to higher levels of PM2.5 from anthropogenic emission sources across rural and urban areas, income levels, and exposure levels.”
From Wildfires and Atopic Diseases: A Review (2026) · cites this paper as [63]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
No references could be resolved yet.
Research works printed but not linked: 23
- [2]R. Burnett, H. Chen, M. Szyszkowicz, N. Fann, B. Hubbell, C. A. Pope III, J. S. Apte, M. Brauer, A. Cohen, S. Weichenthal, J. Coggins, Q. di, B. Brunekreef, J. Frostad, S. S. Lim, H. Kan, K. D. Walker, G. D. Thurston, R. B. Hayes, C. C. Lim, M. C. Turner, M. Jerrett, D. Krewski, S. M. Gapstur, W. R. Diver, B. Ostro, D. Goldberg, D. L. Crouse, R. V. Martin, P. Peters, L. Pinault, M. Tjepkema, A. van Donkelaar, P. J. Villeneuve, A. B. Miller, P. Yin, M. Zhou, L. Wang, N. A. H. Janssen, M. Marra, R. W. Atkinson, H. Tsang, T. Quoc Thach, J. B. Cannon, R. T. Allen, J. E. Hart, F. Laden, G. Cesaroni, F. Forastiere, G. Weinmayr, A. Jaensch, G. Nagel, H. Concin, J. V. Spadaro, Global estimates of mortality associated with long-term exposure to outdoor fine particulate matter. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 115, 9592– 9597 (2018). 30181279 PMC6156628
- [3]C. A. Pope III, D. W. Dockery, Health effects of fine particulate air pollution: Lines that connect. J. Air Waste Manage. Assoc. 56, 709– 742 (2006). 16805397
- [4]D. L. Crouse, P. A. Peters, A. van Donkelaar, M. S. Goldberg, P. J. Villeneuve, O. Brion, S. Khan, D. O. Atari, M. Jerrett, C. A. Pope, M. Brauer, J. R. Brook, R. V. Martin, D. Stieb, R. T. Burnett, Risk of nonaccidental and cardiovascular mortality in relation to long-term exposure to low concentrations of fine particulate matter: A Canadian national-level cohort study. Environ. Health Perspect. 120, 708– 714 (2012). 22313724 PMC3346774
- [5]R. D. Brook, S. Rajagopalan, C. A. Pope III, J. R. Brook, A. Bhatnagar, A. V. Diez-Roux, F. Holguin, Y. Hong, R. V. Luepker, M. A. Mittleman, A. Peters, D. Siscovick, S. C. Smith Jr., L. Whitsel, J. D. Kaufman; American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology and Prevention, Council on the Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease, and Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism, Particulate matter air pollution and cardiovascular disease: An update to the scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation 121, 2331– 2378 (2010). 20458016
- [6]R. D. Bullard, Solid waste sites and the Black Houston community. Soc. Inquiry. 53, 273– 288 (1983). 11635985
- [7]A. Hajat, C. Hsia, M. S. O’Neill, Socioeconomic disparities and air pollution exposure: A Global Review. Curr. Environ. Heal. Rep. 2, 440– 450 (2015). PMC4626327 26381684
- [9]P. Mohai, R. Saha, Which came first, people or pollution? A review of theory and evidence from longitudinal environmental justice studies. Environ. Res. Lett. 10, 125011 (2015).
- [10]J. D. Brender, J. A. Maantay, J. Chakraborty, Residential proximity to environmental hazards and adverse health outcomes. Am. J. Public Health 101, S37– S52 (2011). 22028451 PMC3222489
- [11]C. W. Tessum, J. S. Apte, A. L. Goodkind, N. Z. Muller, K. A. Mullins, D. A. Paolella, S. Polasky, N. P. Springer, S. K. Thakrar, J. D. Marshall, J. D. Hill, Inequity in consumption of goods and services adds to racial–ethnic disparities in air pollution exposure. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 116, 6001– 6006 (2019). 30858319 PMC6442600
- [12]J. Liu, L. P. Clark, M. Bechle, A. Hajat, S.-Y. Kim, A. Robinson, L. Sheppard, A. A. Szpiro, J. D. Marshall, Disparities in Air Pollution Exposure in the United States by Race-Ethnicity and Income, 1990–2010. ChemRxiv. Preprint. 10.26434/chemrxiv.13814711.v1 (2021). PMC8672803 34908495 · DOI
- [13]J. Colmer, I. Hardman, J. Shimshack, J. Voorheis, Disparities in PM2.5 air pollution in the United States. Science 369, 575– 578 (2020). 32732425
- [14]I. Mikati, A. F. Benson, T. J. Luben, J. D. Sacks, J. Richmond-Bryant, Disparities in distribution of particulate matter emission sources by race and poverty status. Am. J. Public Health, 480– 485 (2018). 29470121 PMC5844406
- [15]L. P. Clark, D. B. Millet, J. D. Marshall, Changes in transportation-related air pollution exposures by race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status: Outdoor nitrogen dioxide in the United States in 2000 and 2010. Environ. Health Perspect. 125, 097012 (2017). 28930515 PMC5915204
- [16]P. Mohai, P. M. Lantz, J. Morenoff, J. S. House, R. P. Mero, Racial and socioeconomic disparities in residential proximity to polluting industrial facilities: Evidence from the Americans’ Changing Lives Study. Am. J. Public Health 99 (Suppl. 3), S649– S656 (2009). 19890171 PMC2774179
- [17]M. L. Bell, K. Ebisu, Environmental inequality in exposures to airborne particulate matter components in the United States. Environ. Health Perspect. 120, 1699– 1704 (2012). 22889745 PMC3546368
- [18]R. Morello-Frosch, R. Lopez, The riskscape and the color line: Examining the role of segregation in environmental health disparities. Environ. Res. 102, 181– 196 (2006). 16828737
- [19]M. R. Jones, A. V. Diez-Roux, A. Hajat, K. N. Kershaw, M. S. O’Neill, E. Guallar, W. S. Post, J. D. Kaufman, A. Navas-Acien, Race/ethnicity, residential segregation, and exposure to ambient air pollution: The multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis (MESA). Am. J. Public Health 104, 2130– 2137 (2014). 25211756 PMC4202969
- [20]A. Rosofsky, J. I. Levy, A. Zanobetti, P. Janulewicz, M. P. Fabian, Temporal trends in air pollution exposure inequality in Massachusetts. Environ. Res. 161, 76– 86 (2018). 29101831 PMC5761067
- [21]M. P. S. Thind, C. W. Tessum, I. L. Azevedo, J. D. Marshall, Fine particulate air pollution from electricity generation in the US: Health impacts by race, income, and geography. Environ. Sci. Technol. 53, 14010– 14019 (2019). 31746196
- [22]P. Brown, Race, class, and environmental health: A review and systematization of the literature. Environ. Res. 69, 15– 30 (1995). 7588491
- [23]E. A. Gilmore, J. Heo, N. Z. Muller, C. W. Tessum, J. D. Hill, J. D. Marshall, P. J. Adams, An inter-comparison of the social costs of air quality from reduced-complexity models. Environ. Res. Lett. 14, 074016 (2019).
- [24]A. L. Goodkind, C. W. Tessum, J. S. Coggins, J. D. Hill, J. D. Marshall, Fine-scale damage estimates of particulate matter air pollution reveal opportunities for location-specific mitigation of emissions. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 116, 8775– 8780 (2019). 30962364 PMC6500143
- [25]C. W. Tessum, J. D. Hill, J. D. Marshall, InMAP: A model for air pollution interventions. PLOS ONE 12, e0176131 (2017). 28423049 PMC5397056
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Global air pollution exposure and poverty
Rentschler, J., & Leonova, N. (2023) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39797-4 · Cited by 538 · see citing works
Air Pollution and Mortality at the Intersection of Race and Social Class
Josey, K. P., Delaney, S. W., Wu, X., Nethery, R. C., DeSouza, P., Braun, D., & Dominici, F. (2023) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmsa2300523 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Air pollution, socioeconomic status, and age-specific mortality risk in the United States
Boing, A. F., deSouza, P., Boing, A. C., Kim, R., & Subramanian, S. V. (2022) · JAMA Network Open · doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.13540 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Parker, E. R., Mo, J., & Goodman, R. S. (2022) · The Journal of Climate Change and Health · doi:10.1016/j.joclim.2022.100162 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
English, P. B., Von Behren, J., Balmes, J. R., Boscardin, J., Carpenter, C., Goldberg, D. E., Horiuchi, S., Richardson, M., Solomon, G., Valle, J., et al. (2022) · Environmental Advances · doi:10.1016/j.envadv.2022.100270 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Wildfires and Atopic Diseases: A Review
Ha, A., Balmes, J. R., & Wei, M. L. (2026) · Allergy · doi:10.1111/all.70116
“The researchers concluded that the phenomenon is due to a legacy of discriminatory housing policy, leading to pollution exposure disparities despite decreases in overall emissions [63].”
- Authors
- Tessum, C. W., Paolella, D. A., Chambliss, S. E., Apte, J. S., Hill, J. D., & Marshall, J. D.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Corresponding author
- Tessum, Christopher W.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2021-04-30
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 18
- ISSN
- 2375-2548 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC11426197
- OpenAlex
- W3158981426
- Cited by
- 608
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 86 · 2025: 118 · 2024: 121 · 2023: 142 · 2022: 112 · 2021: 29
- FWCI
- 139.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Science Advances (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (R835873)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Environmental Justice and Health Disparities
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Air Quality and Health Impacts
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
- Keywords
- PM2.5, particulate matter pollution, environmental justice, racial disparities, people of color, air pollution exposure, emission sources, environmental inequity, urban air quality
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
