Historically redlined communities face higher asthma rates

The long-term effects of redlining, which for decades was used to justify discriminatory mortgage lending practices, may be impacting the current health of affected communities, suggests new research from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Francisco. 

An analysis of eight California cities shows that residents of historically redlined neighborhoods are more than twice as likely as their peers to visit emergency rooms for asthma. Redlined neighborhoods also exhibit significantly higher levels of diesel particulate matter in the air, the study found. (author abstract)