Most people recognize the connection between living in a clean environment and enjoying a long and healthy life, and the effects of pollution on physical health are well documented and widely known. The concept of environmental justice – the idea that everyone, regardless of income or race and ethnicity, has the same rights to protection from environmental risks and participation in the decisions that affect their communities – brings to the fore other connections between the environment and human well-being: income and education, which to a large extent determine political power and affect who gets a say in environmental decisions, and, as a result, who is exposed to environmental hazards. 

Historically disenfranchised communities – communities of color and low-income communities – tend to bear the brunt of environmental harm, while those who benefit most from polluting activities are best positioned to escape it. Research in this vein has found that both socioeconomic standing and race – independent of income – determine exposure to environmental hazards. 

A striking example of environmental injustice is found in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood, a community largely composed of immigrants and people of color. The neighborhood ranks high on the demographic indicator of linguistic isolation (linguistic isolation is a concentration of families in which everyone over 14 years of age speaks English “less than well”). Around 50,000 people live in this residential community bordering and interspersed with industrial sites. 

Due to the large number of industrial facilities, warehouses, and freight trucks, residents have dubbed one 10- mile stretch of the Ironbound along Doremus Avenue as the “chemical corridor.” The Ironbound neighborhood is also located in close proximity to Port Newark–Elizabeth, the third-largest seaport in the United States, which is covered with diesel particulate pollution from transportation and industry that are co-located with the port. 

The Ironbound ranks in the 92nd percentile for diesel particulate matter exposure nationally and in the 96th percentile for the respiratory hazard index and the 94th percentile for air toxics cancer risk in New Jersey. 

These environmental toxins permeate different areas of life: they impact not only health but also education. One in four Newark children have asthma, the leading health-related cause of absences for Newark’s children from kindergarten to third grade. Elementary education is critical for building social and academic skills; chronic absenteeism in this time has been shown to have adverse long-term impacts on education. 

It may seem strange that this highly polluted area is home to the census tract with Newark’s longest life expectancy: how could life expectancy be long in an area flooded with environmental toxins? One answer is that this area is home to a large share of immigrants (60.5 percent of the population of census tract 70 is foreign born). 

Not only do immigrants have better health and longer life expectancies than people born in the United States in general, but because many residents did not live their whole lives in this neighborhood, the health effects of environmental toxins may not (yet) be apparent. In addition, just 2.3 percent of this tract’s population is Black, and Newark’s Black residents have the city’s shortest life expectancies. 

But the effects of toxins on children’s health are clear, as mentioned above. Even within the neighborhood, though, life expectancy varies; neighboring census tract 68 in the Ironbound has a life expectancy of 75.6 years, a full decade less than census tract 70. 

In 2023, New Jersey’s landmark environmental justice legislation took effect. The law requires denial of permits if an environmental justice analysis determines that a proposed new facility places undue harm on an already overburdened community. While this legislation cannot rectify past environmental harms, it may prevent additional hardship for the Ironbound and neighborhoods like it.

Kristen Lewis is director, Alex Powers is associate director, and Kate Harvey is a program assistant at the Measure of America team at the Social Science Research Council. This Urban Matters is excerpted from Measure of America’s newly published “Portrait of Newark,” produced in partnership with the Newark Opportunity Youth Network. 

During 2018-2019, Measure of America permitted us to excerpt portions of their “Portrait of New York City” in Urban Matters. We’re delighted to work with them again.

Opening photo by: Kai Schreiber

Closing photo by: Paul Sableman