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In a telephone interview Monday, he said prior research determined that living in close proximity to major roads correlates with a wide range of negative health impacts, including a propensity to contract certain cancers, cardiovascular problems and respiratory ailments. Another body of research had already determined that concentrations of air pollutants are higher near roads.

What is new is the sheer number of people living in such areas – previously, such data were not available – and the finding that the problem is not limited to urban areas.

The study defines “high-volume” or “heavily-trafficked” roads as those with at least 25,000 daily vehicular trips. By far the most impacted state was California, Rowangould said, but every state was affected.

The study focused on “all of our interstate highways as well as secondary arteries – Paseo, Coors, Central – those kind of roads,” Rowangould said.

Specifically, the study found:

• Nearly 60 million people, 19.3 percent of the nation’s population, live near a high-volume road.

• Minority and low-income households are over-represented in that population.

• Analysis found similar results across all regions, with 84 percent of counties showing some disparity.

• Regulatory air quality monitors are not well-positioned to protect this population.

The Environmental Protection Agency requires all cities to monitor air quality. Previously, Rowangould said, monitors were intentionally placed away from roads to measure a city’s average pollutant level. New EPA rules require cities to place them near roadways to measure worst-case scenarios.

This is important because violations of federal air-quality standards detected by the monitors require communities to reduce vehicular emissions and perform greater air-quality analysis in developing transportation plans. Monitors that are not located near highways are less likely to record violations.

Potential health risks, however, are not uniform and may depend on a variety of factors, including the actual pollutants usually found in a specific area, the kind of vehicles using a road and local or regional weather patterns. In some cases, 108 yards would be a sufficient measure, Rowangould said. In others, high concentrations of pollutants extend well beyond the study’s 542-yard parameter.

The study lends credence to environmental justice issues that have cropped up around the country, Rowangould said.

“The paper points out a big problem,” said Rowangould, who before joining the civil engineering faculty at UNM worked for an environmental nonprofit organization in Los Angeles. “This is a first step toward adjusting the problem, (and) we’re now working on ways to solve it.”