Skip to Content
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Log In
Streetsblog Mass

Study: Highway Pollution Contributes to Higher COVID-19 Death Rates

Traffic congestion on I-93 southbound in downtown Boston, pictured around 2 pm on Thursday, August 8, 2019.

A new nationwide study from Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health suggests that people living in neighborhoods with higher levels of fine particulate air pollution are more likely to die from COVID-19 infection than patients from areas with cleaner air.

That's especially concerning for many of communities of color in Massachusetts, where the legacies of racist planning policies expose Asian, Latinx and black neighborhoods to higher levels of tailpipe pollution from highways and other major roads.

The Harvard study compares the nation's county-level COVID-19 deaths (as of April 4) with each county's corresponding long-term average concentrations of pollution particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, also known as PM2.5 or "fine particulate" pollution.

The authors concluded that counties with just one more microgram per cubic meter in their average PM2.5 levels had, on average, a 15 percent higher mortality rate from COVID-19.

The results "underscore the importance of continuing to enforce existing air pollution regulations to protect human health both during and after the COVID-19 crisis," write the study's authors.

Dust from worn tires, brake linings, and tailpipe exhaust make major highways one of the primary sources of PM2.5 pollution in cities. Some of the Commonwealth's worst ambient pollution levels are located in Boston’s Chinatown, home to chronically-congested entrances to the O’Neill tunnel and the I-90/I-93 interchange.

A 2019 study from the Union of Concerned Scientists found that Asian residents of Massachusetts generally breathe in 36 percent more PM2.5 pollution from traffic than the typical white Massachusetts resident; African American residents breathe about 34 percent more pollution, and Latinx resident breathe 26 percent more.

Major highways increase the health risks of fine particulate pollution exposure in the Commonwealth's biggest cities. Courtesy of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Major highways increase the health risks of fine particulate pollution exposure in the Commonwealth's biggest cities. Courtesy of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
false

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Los Angeles

Metro Names Bill Scott as Chief of Police

Chief Scott and Metro leadership emphasized that keeping Metro transit safe would require a multi-faceted approach that included the deployment of officers as well as collaboration with the community, ambassadors, and service providers. "Sometimes enforcement is the answer," Scott said. "Sometimes it's not."

May 7, 2025

Lyft’s Anti-Worker Anti-Transit Record Raises Red Flags For Metro Bike Share

Edwin Aviles and Kalayaan Mendoza urge Metro not to reward bad actors working to undermine workers’ rights and mass transit

South El Monte Launches Electric Car-Share Program

Use the SGV Carshare app to rent electric cars, starting at $40 a day

May 6, 2025
See all posts