Behind every statistic is a neighborhood, a family, a child. Across America, millions of people are living with the consequences of pollution they did not cause and did not choose.
These four communities represent thousands of others across the country — places where environmental burden and social inequity overlap in ways that demand national attention.
In 2014, Flint's water supply was switched to the Flint River to cut costs. The corrosive water leached lead from aging pipes into homes — poisoning thousands of children during critical years of brain development. It took nearly two years for officials to act, and the community is still recovering today.
The stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans is home to over 150 oil refineries and chemical plants — and the predominantly Black communities who live alongside them face cancer rates up to 50 times the national average. Residents report the smell of chemicals on their children's clothes when they come home from school.
After the Cold War, the US government abandoned over 500 uranium mines on Navajo land without cleaning them up. Decades later, communities still live with radioactive dust, contaminated wells, and sky-high rates of kidney disease and cancer. Many families have no access to safe drinking water at all.
Chicago's South Side — predominantly Black and Latino — hosts a disproportionate share of the city's industrial polluters, including metal recyclers, waste processors, and chemical manufacturers. Asthma hospitalization rates here are among the highest in the state, and children grow up breathing air that would be unacceptable elsewhere in the same city.
Across every measure of pollution exposure, race and income are the strongest predictors. Data sourced from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the American Lung Association.
My son has had an inhaler since he was four. Every summer, we count the days until school starts and the air gets a little better. No parent should have to do that.
Community testimony compiled by the Chicago Environmental Justice Network.
We used to trust the water. Now we buy bottled water for everything — cooking, brushing teeth. That costs money we don't have. This didn't happen in the rich neighborhoods.
Testimony documented during the Michigan Civil Rights Commission Flint Water Crisis hearings.
My grandmother lived next to the refinery her whole life. She died of lung cancer at 61. My mother has it now. I'm 28 and I'm already scared about what this air is doing to me.
Testimony compiled by Earthjustice as part of their Cancer Alley advocacy reporting.
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