Deteriorating buildings in the inner city create unhealthy conditions — especially for children — where peeling paint and high levels of dust, mold, insects and rodents can cause lead poisoning and asthma. The flight of supermarkets to the suburbs limit access to healthy foods and raises prices, contributing to a rise in obesity and Type-II diabetes. Pesticides that keep down the rodent and insect population and 135 abandoned contaminated industrial sites in Trenton alone expose residents to toxic chemicals.
In theory, the concentration of population in cities and the denser older suburbs offers opportunities for a cleaner environment with public transit and shopping close by; protection of farms and wild areas from encroaching development; and promotion of community health. Yet, places like Trenton and its older suburbs are among the most toxic places to live and work because of the deteriorating building stock, a history of industrial pollution, and no investment in reducing fossil fuels in the atmosphere through energy efficiency.
Over the last 40 years, the middle class flight to the suburbs has shrunken Trenton’s population from 135,000 to 85,000, leaving in its wake deteriorating infrastructure and dire poverty. Roughly 30% of Trenton’s 33,000 housing units are substandard — with over 72% built before 1950 and most of the remainder before 1970 — and nearly a quarter of Trenton’s residents earn less than half the poverty level, which is $10,400 per individual.
Industry has also left Trenton, leaving behind contaminated land and buildings. In 2008, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection identified more than 135 “known contaminated sites,” or brownfields, in Trenton that challenge community health.
The combination of inadequate resources, deteriorating buildings, and contaminated sites has created serious health problems that are straining healthcare, education, social services, and even justice systems.
Lead poisoning. High levels of lead can kill, but even minimal exposure lowers IQs and causes learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and behavioral problems in youth. Although blood levels of lead are considered to be “elevated” at 10 micrograms or more per deciliter, research now shows that damage to the brain begins at levels as low as 2 to 5 micrograms per deciliter,
Removing lead from paint and gasoline in the 1970s has not solved the problem of lead in the inner city, because babies and young children continue to be exposed to lead both in the dust from old paint and the lead-tainted soil in yards and playgrounds. Testing of children in Mercer County for lead in the blood in 2006 revealed that 78 of the 92 children with elevated blood lead levels –85% — resided in Trenton.
Asthma. Dust mites, rodents, cockroaches, and mold in inner-city homes can trigger asthma in both adults and children. Although Trenton has only 24% of Mercer County’s population, it has 69% of its asthma hospitalizations.
Health dangers from toxic chemicals. Household chemicals, such as pesticides and cleaning materials, create toxic indoor environments. An Isles survey of 100 Trenton households found that 28% of families use poisons and sprays on a daily or weekly basis to manage insects, while 31% use poisons to control rodents daily or weekly.
Obesity and Type-II diabetes. Whereas 56% of New Jersey residents are overweight or obese, inner-city residents face particular obstacles in trying to maintain a healthy weight — little chance for exercise, lack of nutrition education, and considerable distances to supermarkets with healthy, affordably priced foods. It’s not surprising, then, that New Jersey has the nation’s highest incidence of obesity in low-income children between the ages of two and five.