Chinatown’s Environmental and Health Issues are Intertwined

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After learning about Chinatown’s air pollution problem due to congested traffic, idling buses, and the lingering effect of September 11th, I wanted to see if asthma statistics would support this. The air pollution causes health problems, but health insurance is a major problem for the residents. The map shows how asthma is a prevalent issue in lower Manhattan, especially in the area near Chinatown, and at the same time it shows that many people in the last 12 months were unable to receive health care because of its cost. This is a good way of seeing how Chinatown’s environmental and health problems are interrelated.

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Asthma in Manhattan

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This map illustrates the amount of people with asthma and the amount of people that have been to the emergency room due to asthma-related reasons. In particular, I want to focus on West Harlem. The map depicts the West Harlem with a fill color ranging from light green to bright yellow, this concludes that there is a medium to high population of people that have been told the have asthma by doctors and other health professionals. Furthermore, the outline in upper West Harlem is brown, which indicates that there is a high population of people that have been in the emergency room because of asthma. These data are important because it shows the high level of asthma that is present in the West Harlem community, and from my previous research, these asthma cases could be due to the bus depots and the smoke from the North River Wastewater Treating Plant.

Obesity and High Blood Pressure in East Harlem

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One of the most pressing health-related issues in East Harlem is the lack of access to fresh food for its residents. Grocery stores with fresh produce and other healthy options are less common in this neighborhood–and therefore, lead to increased consumption of fast food and other less healthy choices. The map above depicts the recorded instances of obesity in Manhattan and surrounding areas of New York City; higher levels of obesity often correspond with greater occurrences of high blood pressure. This correlation can be found especially in areas such as East Harlem–and definitely seems to be a topic that, when expanded upon, can offer much more insight into the neighborhood and its other health-related issues.

 

Smoking and Asthma in Queens

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This map marks the areas where people who smoked over 100 cigarettes and still currently smoke (gradient) and shows the concentration of people who have been told by a doctor that they have asthma (dot density) in Queens. Coincidentally, the areas with a higher concentration of dots are generally darker than the areas with a lighter concentration of dots. As asthma can be triggered by environmental factors, living or working an area with a higher incidence of smoking might lead to a greater chance of developing asthma. It is interesting, however, to see that Astoria, an area where power plants spew smoke into the air, is an area where there are not many frequent smokers but has a high concentration of people with asthma.

 

Smokers in Queens

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On this map I chose to compare the amount of people who smoked 100 cigarettes or more in their lifetime with the amount of people who have actively tried to quit smoking. As the color goes from turquoise to more yellow you can see the intensity of the amount of people who have smoked 100 cigarettes in their lifetime. The areas that are density yellow show an extremely high smoking population. The dots all over the map represent the people who have tried to quit smoking. It is interesting to note that in certain areas that have very low concentrations of heavy smokers, a high percentage of the people have tried to quit smoking all together. However, it is apparent from looking at the map that many people throughout Queens have tried to quit smoking regardless of the density of smokers in a specific area.

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I picked the three variables: obesity, diabetes, and no medical care due to costs. Obesity is a growing problem for Americans of all ages. Diabetes statistics are also increasing due to unhealthy eating habits, which can be linked with obesity as well. The map is a clear representation of correlation between these two variables because the areas that have a high percentage diabetic residents are also having problems with obesity. Finally, the last factor shows how people in certain areas are suffering from these conditions yet they do not receive medical care because of the cost. These people might also not have the money to buy organic food and instead, they have to turn to cheaper alternatives. This variable seems to affect people from all over the borough of Manhattan.

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