Washington, D.C. – It’s wrong that Americans from communities of color are breathing more pollution than other Americans, with dirty air cutting lives short and diminishing the quality of life.

As reported in The Guardian, a new study finds that vehicles are disproportionately exposing people of color to fine particulate matter across Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.

“American lives are on the line when it comes to pollution — and African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans are all too often bearing the burden of dirty air, water and environments,” said Mustafa Santiago Ali, vice president of environmental justice, climate, and community revitalization at the National Wildlife Federation. “The children who are being rushed to the emergency rooms across our country are more likely to be from communities of color, because in vulnerable communities your ZIP code is determining how long you will live and your quality of life. That means 200,000 people are dying prematurely from dirty air and 25 million people suffering from asthma. It’s time for the leadership at the Environmental Protection Agency to do their job: to protect ‘human health and the environment,’ that means all the communities in our country should receive those protections and not just some of them.”