THE BRONX: POLLUTION

The intense concentration of carbon monoxide spewing from the triangle of highways surrounding The South Bronx partially accounts for the incredibly high prevalence of asthma in the area (in addition to inadequate access to healthcare due to the United States’ class-based medical system). The majority of census tracts in The South Bronx are in the 99th percentile for asthma prevalence. Moreover, not a single census tract in the entire borough is beneath the 50th percentile (aka the median for the country). Asthma carries with it a host of other comorbidities—including, of course, increased vulnerability to COVID.

The highways are also a perpetual eruption of ear-damaging sound. Occasionally the dull roar of free-flowing vehicles, but more often than not the cacophony of stop-and-go traffic; the squeal of screeching brakes; and the incessant honks of drivers hopelessly trying to exert some control over the never-ending congestion in which they find themselves. What is more, the Cross Bronx has become a critical trucking route for the entire region. Thus, further added to the cacophony are the periodic, grinding roars of these trucks shifting gears as they negotiate the Cross Bronx’s many dips and hills. Truck traffic has only grown more intense, as over the second half of the 20th century the city and region disinvested in rail and maritime freight, pushing more onto trucks. Every single day, the highways blanket The Bronx in a level of noise which the CDC classifies as nothing less than “hazardous.”