Hispanics in the U.S. face greater health impacts from climate change than people of other races and ethnicities, and are also likely to favor measures that would curb its effects, according to a new report.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and Voces Verdes released their “Nuestro Futuro: Climate Change and U.S. Latinos” report on Oct. 13, which explored research on how and why Hispanic people face greater economic and poorer health outcomes due to climate change.
According to the report, more than 60 percent of U.S. Hispanics live in states such as California, Texas, Florida and New York that experience the highest amounts of extreme heat, air pollution, flooding and other climate-related threats. Though Hispanic children are diagnosed with asthma at the same rate as white kids, they are twice as likely to die from it, the report noted.
In 2015, U.S. Hispanics made up almost half of the nation’s crop and livestock production workers — occupations that are highly susceptible to the risks of extreme heat exacerbated by climate change—despite making up only 18 percent of the overall population. Heat-related deaths on the job are three times more likely among Hispanics than whites, according to a 2015 study by the American Journal of Industrial Medicine cited in the report.
The report also noted that Hispanics also have the lowest rate of health insurance of any racial or ethnic group in the country, which hinders their ability to access care when afflicted by climate-related illnesses, and that the estimated 11.2 million Hispanic immigrants who are in the U.S. without legal permission are not eligible for disaster aid.
The report emphasized that the climate crisis is a health crisis: extreme heat, polluted air and flooding have been found to increase heat-related illnesses, breathing problems and water-and food-borne illnesses that can result in death.
A 2014 survey cited in the report showed that more than 90 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. want action on climate change and more than 70 percent support carbon pollution limits and feel favorably toward members of Congress who supported these limits.
“The millions of people in the United States who identify as Hispanic or Latino are remarkably diverse — and remarkably united,” said Maria Cardona, a board member of the Hispanic advocacy group Voces Verdes, in an Oct. 13 press call. “They are worried that climate change, if unchecked, will harm their families, communities and country. And they want action now to avoid its worst impacts.”
For information about APHA’s work on climate change, visit www.apha.org/climate. For a copy of the new report, visit www.nrdc.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
