Poverty, pollution and neglect: How the Bronx became a coronavirus 'formula for disaster.'
is the unhealthiest county in the state of New York, the Bronx has long been plagued by underlying illnesses now associated with an increased vulnerability to COVID-19, such as respiratory problems, diabetes and heart disease. More than 91% of Bronx residents who died from COVID-19 had underlying conditions as of April 10, according to New York City Health DepartmentFor decades, the borough suffered under some of the worst air pollution in New York City.
The South Bronx, often described as"Asthma Alley," is surrounded by four highways, several waste facilities and a steady stream of heavy truck traffic servicing a nearby Fresh Direct warehouse, the printing press of The Wall Street Journal and other diesel-intensive industries that fill the streets with emissions.
The area's pollution woes stretch back to the era of Robert Moses, the powerful city planner who presided over New York for 44 years stretching back to the 1920s, often running expressways straight through low income and minority neighborhoods. Moses and subsequent other city planners ultimately surrounded the Bronx with a constant stream of auto-emissions that would persist decades. The expressways were then followed by other industries considered too undesirable for Manhattan.
Medics and hospital workers prepare to lift a COVID-19 patient onto a hospital stretcher outside the Montefiore Medical Center Moses Campus, April 7, 2020 in the Bronx borough of New York City. Coronavirus patients were being transferred from the Westchester Square campus, also a Montefiore hospital in the Bronx, to help overwhelmed hospitals.
Salamanca was among the 10 South Bronx elected officials who sent a letter to state Cuomo's office earlier this week, asking for the state to immediately expand"testing and hospital services" in the South Bronx. The officials asked that a field hospital be established in the Harlem River Yards, a state-owned, 8-acre waterfront site.
An EPA spokesperson told ABC News by email that the changes were"not a blanket waiver of enforcement" and that the agency"does not expect any increase" in air pollution levels as a result. As of this report, the agency has notNearly 141.1 million people in the U.S. are already exposed to unhealthy air, with more than 4 in 10 people living in counties with unhealthy ozone or particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association's 2019 State of the Air report.
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