A new report finds that most people living within a mile of power plants, refineries and other pollution sources in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area are ethnic minorities with higher rates of asthma and cancer, and less access to health care.

Neighborhood activists say children need to use inhalers, and told KCBS that they’re perpetually washing “black gook” and “black soot” off their windows and houses.

Sources:

“Low-income, minority areas bear brunt of Bay Area pollution”
ANG Newspapers, February 18, 2007

“Study claims environmental racism in Bay Area”
CBS5/KCBS (San Francisco), February 20, 2007