Filthy trucks are making us sick | Opinion – nj.com

By Elizabeth Cerceo, Brian J. Lestini and Steven D. Averbuch

As physicians, we’ve seen the impacts of air pollution firsthand: patients with emphysema, bronchitis, and even lung cancer who have no history of smoking. It’s a disturbing reminder that heavy-duty vehicles don’t just deliver consumer goods — they also bring with them real risks to the communities they drive through. It’s time for New Jersey to take action to reduce the dangerous emissions from high-polluting trucks.

In our state, mobile sources are not only a serious climate issue but a major source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution. In fact, New Jersey has some of the highest concentrations of fine particulate matter in the U.S. In 2017, data show that mobile sources contributed 71% of nitrogen oxides and 27% of fine particulate matter statewide. Trucks are responsible for a disproportionate share of this local air pollution due to their reliance on diesel fuel. In 2016 alone, vehicle tailpipes in New Jersey were responsible for over 1,000 premature deaths and an estimated $12 million in health damages, demonstrating the severity of this sector’s impact on human health.

Transitioning away from polluting trucks must reflect the urgency of the health crisis to which they contribute. It is well documented in health and scientific literature that these pollutants are linked to numerous respiratory and cardiovascular diseases such as asthma, decreased lung function, and heart attacks. Globally, approximately 1-in-6 cases (16%) of lung cancer are attributable to fine particulate matter and a recent study published in Nature Aging illustrates that short-term exposure to polluted air, even at levels generally considered “acceptable,” can impair mental ability in the elderly.

What’s more, pollution impacts from mobile sources are deeply inequitable. The communities most burdened by truck pollution are predominantly communities of color and low-income communities. A report by the Union of Concerned Scientists confirms that Asian American, African American, and Latino residents across the country are exposed to 34%, 24%, and 23% more fine particulate matter pollution (respectively) from cars, trucks and buses than the national average.

As research has shown in New Jersey, the ongoing cumulative impacts from myriad sources of pollution in communities of color and low-income communities necessitate that every opportunity to reduce health-harming emissions be explored.

More than 600,000 adults and 167,000 children in our state have asthma with asthma hospitalization rates highest in Cumberland, Camden and Essex counties. About 1 in every 4 children in Newark have asthma: a rate three times higher than the national average — and those children are hospitalized for asthma at 30 times the national rate. In 2019, two children in Newark died from acute exacerbation of chronic asthma. All of this should be sounding alarm bells. Things should not, and do not, have to be this way.

Fortunately, there’s a path forward. The state is considering a new set of rules to rein in truck pollution: the Advanced Clean Trucks Program and the Fleet Reporting Requirement. These rules are feasible, economical and effective. They would answer the urgent problem of air pollution and improve public health, especially for our most vulnerable residents. And the state must listen directly to environmental justice advocates and the communities that bear the biggest share of this hazardous air pollution. New Jersey officials must let the communities who know this issue best drive the process because we can and must achieve emissions reductions above and beyond what the Advanced Clean Trucks Program rule will do on its own.

The state must take action to bring cleaner trucks and cleaner fleets to our communities. As physicians, we’ve seen the unacceptable cost imposed by pollution, a cost measured not just in dollars but in lives. We believe we owe it to families across this state to make sure they can breathe freely.

Shannon Eccles, DO, also contributed to this opinion essay. She lives in Livingston.

Elizabeth Cerceo, MD, FACP, FHM lives in Camden; Brian J. Lestini, MD, Ph.D. lives in Moorestown and Steven D. Averbuch, MD, lives in Princeton. The ideas expressed in this op-ed are solely their own and do not express the views or opinions of their employers.

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