Uploaded February 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
History partly determines who gets to breathe fresh air in the city of Denver, according to new research. A new CIRES led-study found historic redlining practices in the mile-high city are linked to inequities in air quality today.
CIRES graduate student Alex Bradley coupled his background in chemistry with an environmental justice lens to understand how pollution impacts communities of color in Denver.
What he discovered wasn’t surprising: People of color, specifically those of Hispanic/Latino and American Indian/Alaska Native heritage, are exposed to higher levels of air pollution than non-Hispanic whites.
The difference is due to where the groups tend to live, with people of color typically residing in historically redlined neighborhoods many decades after the practice ended. They also tend to live nearer to highways. The practice of redlining is only one facet of discrimination the authors focused on that has resulted in unequal pollution distribution.
The work is in line with growing work showing communities of color experience worse air quality around the country.
Read more about the study and its implications at CIRES news:
https://cires.colorado.edu/news/communities-color-breathe-denvers-worst-air-plus-video
Credits
Music: glider by panu, (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. dig.ccmixter.org/files/panumoon/58372
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/deed.en
Redlining maps and documents courtesy of the Mapping Inequality project at the University of Richmond:
https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=12/39.742/-105.02&city=denver-co
Historical photos courtesy of the Denver Public Library:
digital.denverlibrary.org
Webcam timelapse of Denver's air quality courtesy of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment:
colorado.gov/airquality/live_image_tl.aspx
Video produced by Lauren Lipuma at CIRES.
History partly determines who gets to breathe fresh air in the city of Denver, according to new research. A new CIRES led-study found historic redlining practices in the mile-high city are linked to inequities in air quality today.
CIRES graduate student Alex Bradley coupled his background in chemistry with an environmental justice lens to understand how pollution impacts communities of color in Denver.
What he discovered wasn’t surprising: People of color, specifically those of Hispanic/Latino and American Indian/Alaska Native heritage, are exposed to higher levels of air pollution than non-Hispanic whites.
The difference is due to where the groups tend to live, with people of color typically residing in historically redlined neighborhoods many decades after the practice ended. They also tend to live nearer to highways. The practice of redlining is only one facet of discrimination the authors focused on that has resulted in unequal pollution distribution.
The work is in line with growing work showing communities of color experience worse air quality around the country.
Read more about the study and its implications at CIRES news:
https://cires.colorado.edu/news/communities-color-breathe-denvers-worst-air-plus-video
Credits
Music: glider by panu, (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. dig.ccmixter.org/files/panumoon/58372
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/deed.en
Redlining maps and documents courtesy of the Mapping Inequality project at the University of Richmond:
https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=12/39.742/-105.02&city=denver-co
Historical photos courtesy of the Denver Public Library:
digital.denverlibrary.org
Webcam timelapse of Denver's air quality courtesy of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment:
colorado.gov/airquality/live_image_tl.aspx
Video produced by Lauren Lipuma at CIRES.
