The Silent Killer: Asthma’s Devastating Impact on Newark’s South Ward
In Newark, New Jersey, asthma has become a silent killer, disproportionately affecting the city’s predominantly Black South Ward. Kim Gaddy, founder of the South Ward Environmental Alliance, has witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of this respiratory illness on her community.
“You hear of Newark every time somebody gets killed, it’s a homicide, but asthma is the silent killer—and that is a real health injustice,” said Gaddy, 60, who founded the advocacy group. “You know, asthma, heart attacks, respiratory illnesses—these are the things that harm our community.”
Gaddy and her three children were all diagnosed with asthma; her eldest son died of a heart attack in 2021 at the age of 32.
Air Pollution: A Nationwide Problem
The South Ward is not an isolated case. The American Lung Association‘s recent “State of the Air” report reveals that over 137 million Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution. The report measured three types of air pollution: short-term particle pollution, year-round particle pollution, and ozone pollution.
Wildfires have exacerbated the problem, creating more short-term spikes in air pollution. The data also showed that people of color are more than twice as likely than their white counterparts to live in communities with poor air quality in all of those measures.
“It’s just the cumulative impacts of pollution is what is harming us,” Gaddy said. “And so, unfortunately, that’s what happens in our city.”
The Asthma Crisis in the New York/Newark Metropolitan Area
The New York/Newark metropolitan area has 1.8 million adults with asthma and 370,000 children with the disease, according to the report.
Hope for Change: New Auto Emissions Standards
Researchers are hopeful that a series of new auto emissions standards announced by the Biden administration might significantly reduce some forms of particle pollution. The newly proposed standard calls for 56 percent of all new vehicles sold by 2032 to be electric, as well as increases in plug-in hybrid vehicles or other partially electric cars and more efficient gasoline-powered cars.
The American Lung Association is also calling on the administration to update the national ozone standard, which has not been revised since 2015.
The Far-Reaching Effects of Poor Air Quality
Amit “Bobby” Mahajan, a national spokesperson for the Lung Association and director of interventional pulmonology at Inova Health System in Northern Virginia, emphasizes the far-reaching effects of poor air quality.
“Sometimes people don’t realize that poor air can affect them pretty drastically,” said Mahajan. “We know that there are asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes, but we also see increases in preterm birth, cognitive impairment, and development of lung cancers in individuals who have high exposure to ozone and particle pollution.”
A Call for Healing and Restoration
Gaddy remains confident that federal officials will soon act on the recommendations of researchers and other experts to help alleviate the asthma crisis in her city.
“We know that eventually, our communities will be healed and restored to the level that they should be,” added Gaddy. “And that just because of our zip code or the color of our skin, our communities won’t continue to be these sacrifice zones.”
4 Comments
Isn’t it shocking that one-third of Americans might as well be living with an invisible enemy?
Wow, did we just normalize gas masks as a fashion accessory or what?
Breathing shouldn’t be a luxury, yet here we are.
So now we’re playing real-life survival horror, air edition?