
Asthma and the Civil Rights Movement - Petiver
https://nyamcenterforhistory.org/2017/11/02/asthma-and-the-civil-rights-movement/
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DoreenMichele
_Although the New York Times connects these two phenomena with a psychosomatic
explanation of emotional distress, I view the relationship differently.
Neighborhoods where African Americans lived – often restricted to due to
segregation and redlining – were more exposed to both indoor and outdoor
particles that triggered asthma symptoms. While struggling to breathe, black
people simultaneously fought for the right to live as equals._

I am an environmental studies major. This is not news to me.

It would be more accurate to say that NIMBYism by privileged people, who are
mostly white, is literally causing increased incidence of asthma in people of
color. The de facto disenfranchisement of such people is literally interfering
with their ability to breathe and is sending them to an early grave.

A fight for rights is a fight for life itself.

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weeksie
This part is clutch:

> Neighborhoods where African Americans lived – often restricted to due to
> segregation and redlining – were more exposed to both indoor and outdoor
> particles that triggered asthma symptoms.

My girlfriend used to be the director of special ed for two charter schools in
The Bronx (Hunt's Point). The rates of asthma there are off the charts because
it's where all the roads/freeways converge on their way into Manhattan. It's
also the poorest congressional district in the US.

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InclinedPlane
It's not just asthma. Black neighborhoods are more likely to be in areas where
poorly regulated industry used to be so they are closer to sites where
industrial waste has been casually dumped in the environment. Resulting in
higher incidences of various diseases and also depressed growth in personal
wealth since real estate near toxic waste, highways, etc. tends to be less
desirable and grows in value much slower than in nicer areas. As for asthma, a
lot of that has to do with freeways being built through black neighborhoods,
resulting in higher exposure to diesel exhaust, pm2.5 particulates, ozone,
etc. (which both makes development of asthma more likely and also aggravates
asthmatic symptoms in people who have it, leading to more health issues and
hospital visits).

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sparrish
Stress induced asthma. I wonder if there's been a spike in reported asthma
cases in the St. Louis/Ferguson, Missouri area in recent years?

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DtnB
Since it appears that everyone is talking about this in the present tense even
though the article is talking about the Civil Rights Movement and there are no
referenced sources post-1965:
[https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db94.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db94.htm)

This one in particular(What is going on with Mexican rates of asthma?):
[https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/images/databriefs/51-100/db94_fig2....](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/images/databriefs/51-100/db94_fig2.gif)

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ghufran_syed
Could higher levels of smoking (either by the patient, or by family members)
be related somehow?

[https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/disparities/low-
ses/index.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/disparities/low-ses/index.htm)

