Asthma ER visits during NYC smoke haze were highest in high-poverty, Black and Latino areas

The New York City ZIP codes with the highest numbers of asthma-related emergency room visits during last week's smoke haze were disproportionately in low-income, predominantly Black and Hispanic communities, according to an analysis of local health department and Census data by Gothamist.

The foul air from Canada’s wildfires was bad all over, but the impact hit hardest in neighborhoods in northern Manhattan, the Bronx, central Brooklyn, and the Rockaways, which had the highest number of asthma-related emergency department visits, according to the data.

Between Tuesday, when the city’s air quality reached unhealthy levels, and Saturday there were over 1,000 asthma-related emergency department visits across the city, according to data from the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. That’s a 10% jump from the same period last year.

Some 70% of the asthma-related visits during the period were in ZIP codes with predominantly Black or Hispanic residents. And 60% were in ZIP codes with higher poverty rates than the city overall.

Across the city, asthma-related emergency department visits spiked last week, more than doubling overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, and remained elevated in the following days.

Research suggests that residents of high-poverty areas and higher-than-average non-white populations are at higher risk of premature death from air particle pollution, exposure typically linked to redlining, residential segregation and proximity to high-traffic areas, among other factors.

“The Bronx has the most to lose in situations like this where the environment can be very taxing for our patients,” David Chong, chief of the pulmonary and critical care division at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, said. "And we have the highest number of vulnerable patients.”

“It's a perfect storm,” he added.

Eddie Bautista, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, noted the communities routinely suffer high pollution readings, an impetus behind the environmental justice movement.

“So we can and should figure out how to protect the most vulnerable," Bautista said.

The top-10 ZIP codes with asthma-related emergency room visits have far higher poverty rates and populations of Black and Hispanic residents than the rest of the city.

According to a 2021 Census Bureau survey, roughly one in five New Yorkers lives below the federal poverty line – at the time $26,500 for a family of four – and a little less than half are Black or Hispanic Meanwhile, in the top-10 ZIP codes for ER visits, about a third of the residents live below the poverty line. In the same communities, Blacks and Hispanic residents account for at least half or significantly more of the population.

Staff reporter Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky contributed to this article.