Opinion: Air pollution harms public health. It must change - Hartford Courant

Opinion: Air pollution harms public health. It must change

As a physician, former director of the Hartford Health Department, and longtime resident of the South Green neighborhood of Hartford, I have seen personally and professionally how air pollution harms public health and disrupts the lives of families and communities.

This is especially true in low-wealth neighborhoods and communities of color, such as South Green. There are many contributors to the air quality problems that grip my neighborhood and other communities across the state, but transportation-related pollution from the cars, trucks and buses that run through the heart of South Green are a leading culprit.

Approximately half of the households in South Green do not own personal vehicles and rely on walking, biking, public transportation and other means to get to and from school and work. Even though they don’t drive, they are disproportionately affected by the traffic pollution stemming from commuter vehicles, transit and school buses, and the heavy-duty truck traffic that thunders up and down the Interstate 84 and Interstate 91 highways that bisect our city 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Diesel tailpipe pollution is toxic and has immediate and long-term health impacts. Big trucks and buses makeup just 6 percent of all on-road vehicles but are responsible for over 50 percent of traffic-related smog-forming NOx pollution, which can lower your resistance to pneumonias, and can be life-threatening for people with lung diseases like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. For communities within one third of a mile of a highway or other freight corridors, this pollution is even more devastating for lung health and can lead to early death.

In fact, according to a 2016 New York University study, Connecticut has the highest rate of deaths from air pollution of any New England state. Death rates for Black children are eight times higher compared to white children, and Connecticut’s Black and Latino residents are hospitalized for asthma at rates two to three times higher than the white population, according to recent data from the American Lung Association.

While my community and so many others are suffering under the weight of this harmful pollution from the transportation sector, we do have solutions on the table that will provide significant relief. The Advanced Clean Trucks and Advanced Clean Cars II, or ACCII, programs that are being proposed for Connecticut can help clean up our air and also address the emissions fueling the climate crisis. Pollution reductions associated with electrifying medium and heavy-duty trucks and buses alone will save Connecticut $270 million dollars in avoided health care costs over the period of 2020-2040, but could be as much as $500 million to $1.4 billion by 2050.

Critics of the policies tout the notion that EVs and heavy-duty fleets are too expensive and will crush family budgets and small businesses. Nothing could be further from the truth. First, not one Connecticut resident will be forced to buy an EV. New gas-powered cars will be available for years to come and, after 2035, they will remain available in the used car market. Further, more affordable EV options are hitting the roads with every model year, a trend that ACCII will only accelerate. Similarly, as EV adoption increases throughout the state, prices will continue to fall and there will be more EVs available in the secondary market that are more accessible to car buyers.

As for the feasibility of transitioning our heavy-duty sector, despite what naysayers have said to block progress, we know the technology is ready and here to stay, and utilities in the region are working hard to assess needs and step up to the challenge as well. Recent studies show that electric trucks will be cheaper than new diesel trucks within just four years for most classes of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.

Dr. Mark Mitchell is a former director of the Hartford Health Department and current director of State Affairs for the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.