Reports: BR air improves; racial inequity seen

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Apr 29, 2009 - Page: 1B

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Two reports show good news and bad news for Baton Rouge and the state in the realm of air quality.

A report from two university research programs released Tuesday shows minority and low-income residents in Louisiana and Baton Rouge carry a larger proportion of the risk from “toxic air” compared with their percentage of the population.

In another report, the American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air says the Baton Rouge area’s ranking for ozone pollution dropped from the 10th-worst metropolitan area last year to 21st-worst this year.

“Baton Rouge air quality has improved, so we’re lower now in the ranking, which is good,” said Michael Vince, administrator for the air quality assessment division of the state Department of Environmental Quality.

“Based on our real data, you can see our air quality here is so much better.”

The report, embargoed until today, looks at ozone and particulate pollution: small suspended particles in the air.

In Louisiana, no city made the Top 10 list of worst in particulate pollution.

Alexandria made it into the “cleanest” area category for this type of pollution, according to the report.

Meanwhile,. the university report — which was not limited to ozone and particulate matter — paints a picture of inequality, based on race and income, when it comes to risk of exposure to polluted air.

The report was developed by researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at the University of Southern California.

This report starts with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency model for air pollutants called the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators.

This model takes pollution data reported by industrial facilities and comes up with a potential risk from air pollution to people living near the facilities.

The researchers took this information and combined it with census data to come up with rankings for areas around the country.