https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1510-2080
The detrimental effects of air pollution exposure have long been acknowledged by the greater scientific community. Experts ranging from toxicologists, epidemiologists, and environmental health researchers have uncovered numerous details regarding underlying mechanisms, and widespread impacts of air pollution. Our diverse and ever-expanding community of scientists continues to develop progressive analytical methods to understand the impact of air pollution on human health. Since its inception, the mission of the journal, Inhalation Toxicology, has been to highlight the research, latest accomplishments, and evolving methods used to evaluate the health risk associated with airborne chemicals. In this Special Issue, we continue to echo the toxicological advancements conducted by our community of dedicated respiratory and inhalation scientists. For this Special Issue, we choose to focus our attention on an often-overlooked aspect of air pollution, its disproportionate impact on globally marginalized communities. Through the pages of rigorous research, review, and insightful analyses, we appreciate a sobering reality—the burden of air pollution falls most heavily on those who are the least equipped to endure it.
Our primary focus in this Special Issue is on the communities that face heightened vulnerability due to socioeconomic disparities, geographical location, and systemic injustices. We put out a call to scientists working with these diverse communities exposed to air pollution and their individual constituents. From densely populated urban areas to remote rural regions, we received novel research articles and reviews highlighting the adverse impacts of polluted air that impacts every corner of our world, exacting a toll on the health, livelihoods, and well-being of millions. Moreover, this Special Issue serves as a clarion call for greater inclusivity in scientific inquiry. Elite universities have historically been at the forefront of scientific discovery in toxicology. While they produce research of the highest caliber and receive the most funding to conduct these scientific endeavors, they effectively outcompete and exclude expert voices from communities around the globe. By amplifying the voices of those most affected, and fostering partnerships with community stakeholders, we can cultivate a deeper understanding of the unique challenges faced by marginalized groups and develop targeted interventions that prioritize their needs and aspirations. In this Special Issue, we have brought to light those community voices burdened most by these exposures.
In this issue, Santacruz-Márquez and colleagues examined the critical need for more research regarding inhaled chemicals and reproductive outcomes in their review article entitled, ‘The effects of inhaled pollutants on reproduction in marginalized communities: a contemporary review.’ Their evaluation focuses on inhaled chemicals such as phthalates, pesticides, marijuana, e-cigarette liquids and vaporizers, along with certain criteria air pollutants (U.S. EPA), describing the known mechanisms of toxicity as well as epidemiological findings. In this review, reproductive outcomes were considered such as: alterations in both sperm and ovarian quality and sex steroid hormone levels, fertility, and birth outcomes. Importantly, the authors framed these findings in the context of marginalized populations describing the health disparities to air pollution in underrepresented groups. Such studies include results where non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics were exposed to higher levels of specific phthalates than Whites, and higher levels of pesticides found in the blood and urine of non-Hispanic Black women, compared to non-Hispanic White women. Santacruz-Márquez and colleagues focus their narrative on adverse and disproportionate exposures impacting people of color and other vulnerable communities. While advocating for more research to better elucidate the associations between pollutant exposure and adverse reproductive outcomes in marginalized communities, these researchers produced a timely manuscript as plasticizers, organic toxins, marijuana, and e-cigarettes continue to pervade our society.
Almashat and McDiramid use their expertise to highlight the often-underestimated impact of chemical warfare on surrounding communities—exposure to harmful respirable pollutants. In their article, ‘Toxic chemical exposures among civilians in armed conflicts: The need for research equity, justice, and accountability,’ studies dating from 1945 were included in the search criteria, yielding 66 articles regarding exposure to warfare-associated inhaled chemical toxicants. The authors addressed the ubiquitous exposures to dust, smoke, and munitions components during warfare and discussed their toxic potentials. They further described the toxicological mechanisms and pathologies of more insidious munitions, such as biological or chemical weapons (e.g. herbicides, nerve agents, incendiaries). These toxicants can persist in the environment following combat, chronically exposing civilians until cleanup/remediation occurs. The authors argue that civilians in these war-torn areas face inequitable exposure. Compounded by exposure surveillance barriers and medical attention due to wartime geopolitical complications, the warfare chemical-induced disease burden of exposed individuals who are an unnecessary casualty of war can significantly increase. Inevitably, the communities already overburdened by numerous psychosocial and economic problems will continue to be encumbered by these toxic chemical exposures. As armed conflicts continue to ravish countries, borders, and communities ill equipped to handle them, the molecular level incursions of those directly and indirectly exposed can persist long after armistice is declared.
In the review paper, entitled ‘Health burden of sugarcane burning on agricultural workers and nearby communities,’ authored by Stem and colleagues, the impacts of sugarcane burning byproducts in developing nations were investigated. This paper adds substantially to the exposure-based narratives that exemplify the disproportionate burdens placed on people due to globalization. Sugarcane burning is a common agricultural method used to aid in the maintenance of crop yield. The authors highlight how exposures to sugarcane ash could impact local communities and occupational workers, exposing them to airborne particulate matter (PM) and silica nanoparticles. The authors delve into the pulmonary, cardiovascular, and renal impacts resulting from exposure to the chemical constituents of sugarcane ash, such as crystalline silica, silanols, and hydrocarbons. Such health outcomes associated with exposure, include disproportionate rates of chronic kidney disease, symptoms of respiratory distress, and increased risks of developing lung cancer. A review of mechanisms from both clinical and in vitro studies regarding kidney and cardiopulmonary toxicity are used to further substantiate their findings. Compounded by the lack of health infrastructure in these developing nations, such communities are likely at a disproportionate risk of chronic disease, particularly compared to white counterparts in more economically-stable nations. As sugarcane production is forecasted to increase 21.3% over the next decade, and the risks could be further amplified by global climate change, this necessary review focuses on the potential health crisis falling on under-resourced communities.
In the review article, entitled, Traffic-related air pollution in marginalized neighborhoods: a community perspective, Khan et al. included the perspectives of a community-based organization (CBO) working closely with marginalized communities in north Brooklyn (NY). The authors reviewed and summarized research from 2010 to 2024 regarding traffic related air pollutants (TRAP) and their respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurotoxic health outcomes and mechanistic framework. These data were used to inform the particular risks to vulnerable populations in north Brooklyn (a Borough of New York City), burdened by environmental justice issues. Guided by the CBO, North Brooklyn Neighbors (NBN), an environmental justice community organization, the impact of TRAP on marginalized communities in this area, were brought to light. This contemporary review cites research that considers the history of redlining, interstate highway construction, and Black and Hispanic community placement, underscoring the environmental injustices that have long plagued the NY metropolitan area. The authors further add to the literature regarding disproportionate exposures and health effects in underserved population in an urban environment, while bringing forward the voices that academics so often disregard to strengthen their conclusions.
Ekhatora and colleagues examined the topic of aerosol deposition of black soot impacting their own communities in the Niger Delta, in the review article entitled ‘Impact of black soot emissions on public health in Niger Delta, Nigeria: understanding the severity of the problem.’ They reviewed soot and black carbon pollution data from the past 32 years, relating it to adverse health outcomes such as pulmonary tuberculosis, pneumonia, upper respiratory tract infections, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. The authors reveal significant relationships between higher air pollutant concentrations and cardiopulmonary morbidities, since the region’s rapid industrialization. Using toxicological findings from previous soot research, including histone modifications, DNA adduct formation, and altered oncogene expression, they explain the likely increase in adverse health outcomes in the region. The authors call for more research investigating health issues impacting vulnerable populations, referencing emerging evidence between the increases in spontaneous abortion and stillbirths due to high soot exposure in Nigerian women. These environmental health scientists call for a reduction in the exposure to black soot, warning of the ongoing public health crisis that may be exacerbated by global climate change. With an urgency caused by their proximity to the ongoing exposures, Ekhatora and colleagues provide a crucial analysis into soot deposition in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region.
The papers mentioned above have all highlighted inequitable exposures in different vulnerable populations or communities that have been historically marginalized. What all the communities have in common is the need for additional research to elucidate the combined impacts of unique inhalation exposure combined with lower socioeconomic status, poor access to health care along with other health disparities as a consequence of rural locations and socioeconomic stress. Importantly, there is also a need for action by all responsible agencies to provide effective cleanup. In this Special Issue of Inhalation Toxicology, we have attempted to bring to light the breadth of inhalable toxicant exposure on a global scale. The studies and analyses conducted by expert scientists underscore the urgency in addressing environmental injustices and the disproportionate health burdens. Only through collaboration with communities, rigorous research, and compassionate advocacy, we scientists can begin to advance the field of environmental health relevant to these adversely impacted communities and strive toward a future where the fundamental right to clean air is not a privilege reserved for the few, but can be shared by all.
Division of Environmental Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, NY, NY, USA
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Acknowledgements
A special thanks to the Zelikoff lab for their time and dedication in formulating this special edition. Thank you to all the authors for their desire to conduct equitable research and adding to our understanding of inhaled toxicants in marginalized populations.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.