Detroit air pollution disproportionately affects African-American children

By MICHIGAN RADIO NEWSROOM & CATHERINE SHAFFER 

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  Marathon's Detroit Oil Refinery, the only oil refinery in Michigan. The activities here have been linked with increased rates of cancer in surrounding neighbourhoods.

  NATHAN BISHOP

Detroit ranked tenth on a list of worst metropolitan areas in the U.S. for asthma attacks in African-American children due to oil and gas exposure. That’s according to a new study, “Fumes Across the Fence-Line,” released by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Clean Air Task Force, and the National Medical Association. 

African-American children in metro Detroit suffered 2,402 asthma attacks and missed 1,751 school days due to asthma per year. Dallas-Fort Worth topped the list with 8,059 asthma attacks and 5,896 school days missed among African-American children. Other cities on the list were Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Chicago.

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