Healthy Indoors | 45
Petrochemical production facilities
are disproportionately located in poor
communities and communities of color
because of decades of racial discrim-
ination in housing and financial ser-
vices. In majority-Black census tracts,
the estimated risk of cancer from toxic
air emissions is more than twice the
risk found in majority-white tracts,
making petrochemical pollution a clear
example of environmental racism. Un-
fortunately, the petrochemical industry
is booming across the country, with an
especially heavy presence in the Gulf
Coast, and a growing number of pet-
rochemical facilities arising in the Ohio
River Valley.
For parents, awareness of the true
harms of petrochemicals and plastics
may be especially painful. When we're
strapped for time and money, the con-
venience that saves our sanity is often
wrapped in single-use plastics, like
single-serving granola bars and eas-
ily disposable diapers. Knowing that
the plastic that's embedded into our
everyday lives is contributing to harm-
ful pollution and climate destruction is
excruciating, adding to the burden of
impossible trade-offs we make every
day. Holding this knowledge with com-
passion for ourselves is key to building
the courage we need to hold petro-
chemicals companies accountable for
creating this plastic mess.
We must hold petrochemical com-
panies accountable and demand that
EPA and other government agencies
rein in toxic pollution from the produc-
tion of plastics. This is a big-system
problem that requires big-system ac-
tion to fix. But we can also find ways
to reduce our dependence on plastic
in our everyday lives, such as the nu-
merous ideas suggested in the book
Things You Can Do. The plastic prob-
lem might feel overwhelming, and we
are not powerless.
To learn more about petrochem-
icals and our health, and how you
can take action on this important
issue, please read our new fact
sheet, PETROCHEMICAL POLLU-
TION AND OUR HEALTH.
Moms Clean Air Force is grateful to Cynthia Palmer for her research and
writing on the petrochemical crisis.
Elizabeth Bechard is Senior Policy Analyst for Moms Clean Air Force. She is
also a health coach, author, former clinical research coordinator, and a public
health graduate student at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
TELL CONGRESS: SUPPORT THE
BREAK FREE FROM PLASTIC POLLUTION ACT