| From the Villa ge of Brook ly n |
OUR TIME PRESS THE L OCAL PAPER WITH THE G LOBAL VIEW
| VOL. 21 NO. 46
November 16 – 22, 2017 |
Since 1996
Takes a Village of all Available Citizens -- Rich and Poor--
To Keep Humanity on the Map
Photo: Afram News
The Moral Compass Swings their Way: When we search for true leaders of courage and ethics to advocate for all of us –in the board rooms, the halls of government, our schools, and our homes, we need look no further than Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, entrepreneur Raymond McGuire and Athlete Colin Kaepernick. Jeffries lit up the Senate floor this week with his expert questioning of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. McGuire and his friends started a Harvard endowment now in excess of millions of dollars -- for young men of color; and Kaepernick shook the nation by taking a knee.
NAACP: Oil and Gas Industries’ Toxic Pollutants Are Poisoning African-American Communities, Increasing Risks of Cancer and Respiratory Diseases
W
ASHINGTON, DC, November 14, 2017 -- Clean Air Task Force (CATF) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) have co-authored a landmark report that demonstrates, for the first time, the specific health risks from airborne pollutants caused by oil and natural gas development impacting African American communities. The study, Fumes Across the FenceLine: The Health Impacts of Air Pollution from Oil and Gas Facilities on African American Communities, is being launched today at a briefing at the National Press Club by NAACP and CATF, and supported by the National Medical Association (NMA). Key findings of the study are: Oil and natural gas facilities are built near or currently exist within a half-mile of over one million African Americans, exposing
them to an elevated risk of cancer due to air toxic emissions; The oil and natural gas industries violate the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) air quality standards for ozone smog due to natural gas emissions in many African American communities, causing over 138,000 asthma attacks among school children and over 100,000 missed school days each year; There are 91 counties across the U.S. that are building oil refineries or where refineries exist close to more than 6.7 million African Americans, or 14 percent of the national population, disproportionately exposing them to toxic and hazardous emissions such as benzene, sulfur dioxide and formaldehyde. These “fence-line” communities, or communities where oil and natural gas refineries are placed near the property lines or fences of African American and low-income people,
are the focus of the groundbreaking study, providing data on the environmental racism that activists have been fighting for decades. “Energy companies often deny responsibility for the disproportionate impact of polluting facilities on lower-income communities and communities of color,” said Kathy Egland, NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Committee Board Chair. “It is claimed that in most cases the potentially toxic facilities were built first and communities knowingly developed around them. However, studies of such areas show that industrial polluting facilities and sites have frequently been built in transitional neighborhoods, where the demographics have shifted from wealthier white residents to lower-income people of color. Polluting facilities also reduce nearby property values, making them more affordable areas to live in ➔➔ Continued on page 3
☞ INSIDE Congressman Hakeem Jeffries Grills Sessions ➔➔ Page 3
Black Men's Health ➔➔ Page 7
Medgar Evers College Student honored for Cancer Research ➔➔ Page 7
What’s Going On” ➔➔ Page 4
Publisher Walter Smith Passes ➔➔ Pages 4, 10
Marlon Rice on #metoo ➔➔ Page 5
Letters: Remembering Elsie ➔➔ Page 9