Although New York City does not have as much air pollution as some other cities in the country, like Los Angeles, or across the globe, like Shanghai, it is still a problem that is serious enough to cause many deaths every year. However, considerable progress has been made to filter the air and make the city more livable for those who suffer from respiratory diseases, particularly asthma. The article mentions how “as of winter 2012-2013, wintertime SO2 levels have declined by 69% while levels of nickel in fine particulate matter…have declined by 35%” (New York City Trends in Air Pollution and its Health Consequences 1). This is especially due to regulations to limit the amount of No. 4 and No. 6 heating oil that contained these harmful particulates and to replace them with cleaner air sources. Furthermore, mortality rates have decreased as well: it is estimated that there are “an average of 780 fewer PM2.5_ attributable deaths per year than would have remained at 2005-2007 levels, or a reduction of 25%” (New York City Trends in Air Pollution and its Health Consequences 9).
One of the main things that I noticed with the report was that the vast majority of the reductions in the concentrations of these chemicals could be found in Manhattan and parts of the Bronx, but many of the outer boroughs were left untouched in the graphs. That is not to say that Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island do not have their own mix of pollutants to deal with, given their proximity to the three main airports that serve our metropolitan area. However, these portions of Manhattan and the Bronx contain the most densely populated areas in the city and likely the poorest as well.
The only issue that I had with the reports was that the findings were done over an exceptionally short period: from the winter of 2008-2009 to the winter of 2012-2013, especially since this included the anomalously warm and dry winter of 2011-2012. The effects of policies that were passed decades ago should have been looked at as well, but at the same rate, there might not have been as much industrialization or pollution as there has been in recent years. Nevertheless, much work still has to be done, considering there is an outgoing outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, but we should commend ourselves for what we have done collectively to combat air pollution thus far.
