July 10th 2023.
Highly-melanated skin has long been known to age well. However, a new study shows that individuals with low socioeconomic status, neighborhood deprivation, and air pollution exposures are significant environmental contributors to the increasing biological aging of Black people. In other words, environmental racism kills.
Exactly how this happens is a mystery. But a research article published in PLOS ONE emphasizes the phenomenon of “weathering”, which is described as premature biological aging due to being repeatedly exposed to social adversity and marginalization. This is linked to various poor health issues ranging from heart disease and mental illness to higher infant and maternal mortality.
Unfortunately, there is a lack of naming racism in environmental epidemiology and a limited understanding of biological mechanisms by which they affect health outcomes. Emerging research and evidence show that DNA methylation is a “mediating link between social and structural determinants of health and both age-related health outcomes and health disparities”, as mentioned in the study. “Markers of biological aging using DNAm have emerged as robust measures of weathering.”
ZIP codes can reveal their own story. When researchers analyzed DNAm data, surveys, and neighborhoods of 2,960 Americans age 50 or older based on participants’ ZIP codes, they found that Black older adults are more likely to live in an area with higher deprivation and less access to socioeconomic resources. This includes disparities in healthcare. For example, Atlanta residents of predominantly white, high-income neighborhoods have an average life expectancy of 84, while those who reside in mostly Black, low-income areas have an average life expectancy of 71.
Rashad Burgess, vice president of Advancing Health and Black Equity at Gilead Sciences, told BLACK ENTERPRISE that “social determinants of health play a major, major factor”. He explains that if people don’t have access to healthcare, education, or are victims of racism, this will play a huge difference in their health outcomes.
Environmental epidemiology also needs to focus on the structural racist forces that drive health disparities, as stated in a commentary. Despite this, there is a pervasive structural racism in environmental epidemiology which neglects the health of entire populations. For example, Black communities have been reported to bear a disproportionately high air pollution burden and are more likely to experience environmental exposures which can cause racial disparities in many health issues.
Gloria Huei-Jong Graf, a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, told STAT News that people who have lived in a poor area with a lot of exposure to air pollution their entire lives will likely look different from someone who has moved into the neighborhood recently. Those with a long history of lung conditions or asthma could have a higher chance of exposure.
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