Latino Health News: Study Shows Disproportionate Number Of Latinos Live Near Hazardous Chemical Facilities

There are roughly 52 million Hispanics living in the United states, according to the U.S. Census Bureau -- making Latinos the largest ethnic or race minority in the nation -- but when it comes to safe living conditions, there is some troubling news.

A new study released by The Environmental Justice and Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA), a group of organization affiliated with the Coalition for Chemical Safety, found that of the Americans that live near dangerous chemical industrial facilities, African American and Latinos have a disproportionate presence.

“Our government has allowed these facilities to be disproportionately located in communities of color and has allowed chemical corporations and the officials who are supposed to be protecting us to tragically fail workers and surrounding communities,” explains Michele Roberts, a co-author of the report and national Co-Coordinator of the EJHA, in a news release. “Sadly, we have witnessed too many tragic catastrophes such as what happened in West, TX last year, with 15 people killed; or in Elk River, WV, with toxic, contaminated water coming out of people’s faucets in their homes; or Richmond, CA, where 15,000 were sent to hospitals from a Chevron refinery explosion. People of color communities are treated as if they are disposable human beings. This is environmental injustice and racism.”

Consider this: The United States has an estimated 3,400 hazardous chemical facilities and an approximate 134 million people live near them. The findings of the study, as reported by Republic Report, are shocking: The percentage of Latinos in the fenceline zones is 60 percent greater than for the U.S. as a whole; the poverty rate for the fenceline zones is 50 percent higher than for the U.S. as a whole; and average household incomes in the fenceline zones are 22 percent below the national average.