Chinatown continues to be one of Boston’s more vibrant communities. However, behind that curtain, the residents, workers, and businesses breathe the dirtiest air in Massachusetts.
Joan didn’t know that Chinatown had the dirtiest air in Massachusetts when she moved here eight years ago. But when her two twin girls were diagnosed with asthma two years ago, she was shocked. She couldn’t understand why. No one in her own family had asthma and no one smoked at home. Then her children’s nurse at Tufts Medical Center told her about the polluted air in Chinatown and thought that it might be responsible for her twin’s asthma.
Lydia Lowe, Director of the Chinatown Community Land Trust, has participated for more than a decade in the Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health (CAFEH) research project that has done extensive research and data collection in Chinatown that linked exposure to ultra-fine particulate matter (UFPs) in the air with heart- related issues like inflammation and high blood pressure. Many researchers have found that pollution in Chinatown is the worst in the state.
This is just one of many important environmental issues facing Chinatown, Lowe says, along with the very real threat of future flooding and the health risks of being one of the city’s “heat islands.” “It is important,” she says, “for every level of government to put more priority on reducing pollution and addressing climate change now. That includes stricter regulations against pollution, improving public transit, and allocating funds to communities that have been and are most impacted. This is commonly called ‘environmental justice.’”
According to Lowe, high quality air filtration systems can improve the indoor air in buildings next to highways, and Chinatown is a prime example of car exhaust pollution. “We should require these systems in new buildings near highways, but owners of older buildings need extra funding to make those buildings healthier. This same question arises when we talk about electrifying buildings as part of an overall plan to reduce carbon dependency. Those who benefit from energy retrofits cannot only be the upper income residents of new developments.”
Ken has lived in one of the new high-rises in Chinatown for over five years, but he is leaving Chinatown and moving to Quincy. He says he is “fed up” with the lack of concern from the city, state, and feds. Ken can see and smell the poisonous air in Chinatown every day. He believes that many Chinatown residents, business owners, and workers have no idea about the danger air pollution poses and authorities want to keep it under the radar. “I have been to too many community meetings where the authorities show up and nothing ever gets done…They don’t respect us because we don’t speak English and residents need to complain,” Nevertheless, Ken has given up. He said he is not worried about himself, but he does not want to raise his children in air where they will get cancer or where their children could be born with birth defects.
Joan is afraid to let her children play outside. She desperately wants to move out of Chinatown, but she can’t afford to go anywhere else because she lives in a subsidized unit. Joan is angry that she can’t breathe clean, fresh air, and because she is poor.
SAMPAN, published by the nonprofit Asian American Civic Association, is the only bilingual Chinese-English newspaper in New England, acting as a bridge between Asian American community organizations and individuals in the Greater Boston area. It is published biweekly and distributed free-of-charge throughout metro Boston; it is also delivered to as far away as Hawaii.
