On behalf of the undersigned organizations, we submit this letter urging the General Assembly and the Governor to pass the Health & Equity Insights Act (SB2385/HB5013). We urge swift action to improve the public health and economic loss of Illinois residents impacted by the harmful pollution caused by the explosion of the warehousing industry across Illinois.
Just-in-time delivery has resulted in more warehouses being located near homes, schools, and community centers and employing more Illinoisans than ever before. A single warehouse may generate hundreds of truck trips everyday. While trucks are central in the goods supply chain, they also contribute to air pollution, noise pollution, traffic, safety, and economic concerns. They disproportionately affect Illinois residents based on their income, location, and/or workplace.
Truck pollution is a leading cause of disease in communities across Illinois, especially for the most vulnerable groups of children, the elderly, and those with preexisting conditions. Although they only make up 7 percent of the on-road fleet, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, they emit 36 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, 67 percent of nitrogen oxide (NOx), and 59 percent of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution.
In Illinois, NOx-related pollution from these vehicles contributes to more than 7,200 new childhood asthma cases annually. Black children are six times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma and 10 times more likely to die from asthma compared to non-Hispanic white children. PM2.5 from diesel trucks and buses kills over 400 Illinoisans each year – the fifth highest PM2.5 mortality rate among all states. Twelve Illinois counties rank in the top 9% of the most at-risk areas in the country for health, societal, and economic impacts of diesel pollution.
Areas with high PM2.5 are linked to fetal and infant mortality, birth complications, higher asthma and diabetes rates, lung cancer, and increased risk of cognitive impairment and disease. The economic impact of these serious health effects, including missed workdays, restricted activities, deaths, and medical treatments, amounted to an estimated $4.6 billion in 2023.
High-traffic areas near highways, warehouses, and ports have the worst pollution levels, and because of historic and ongoing discrimination, the surrounding neighborhoods tend to be communities of color or low wealth. Workers in the logistics industry tend to be predominantly immigrant workers, workers of color, or temporary workers that are already highly exposed to exploitative working conditions. These workers often face the double burden of disproportionate exposure to air pollution both at home and at work. Across the state, communities of color live near the most NOx and PM burdened areas at a rate nearly double that of white residents.
In Illinois, two million people live within a half mile of 2,400 leased mega-warehouses. Latine and Black residents live near these warehouses at rates much higher than expected given the state population: 195% and 137%, respectively. To make matters worse, the success of e-commerce has led the logistics industry to build more truck-attracting facilities that increase the cumulative burdens faced by communities of color. From 2005 to 2022, Illinois added 224 million square feet of warehouses, contributing an estimated additional 204,000 daily truck trips for a total 525,000 truck trips per day.
However, warehouse locations are not publicly available, obscuring efforts to identify indirect emissions. Advocates only have access to leased warehouse locations through expensive private real estate databases. Current air monitoring is also insufficient to capture disparities in pollution levels and government truck counts are inadequate. Many existing air monitors only measure air pollution every 1 in 6 days, and are often not sited in locations that accurately measure likely hotspots.
These gaps in data leave the true impacts of truck-attracting facilities, so often developed adjacent to residential areas, schools, parks, and hospitals, hidden for neighbors, children, and workers that have no choice but to breathe nearby diesel pollution. Yet solutions to consistently monitor and mitigate pollution are more affordable and efficient than ever, and a robust set of information means Illinois can prioritize investments where they can do the most good.
Reasonable projections of zero-emission truck adoption predict that in 2035 the bulk of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles will still run on fossil fuels. Without accurate local air quality and community data and the policy decisions they inform, pollution could remain the same or get worse in already overburdened communities, even as levels decrease in aggregate.
To address these issues, the Health & Equity Insights Act will:
Switch monitors over to continuous data collection and expand the monitoring network;
Analyze and regularly publish the impacts of pollution in overburdened communities;
Investigate polluters in overburdened communities and those with high priority emitters;
Require warehouses and truck-attracting facilities to register with Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), track emissions, and annually report information on ownership, transportation infrastructure, employees, truck trips, size, and more;
Expand IEPA monitoring efforts including annual truck counting, co-location of monitors with impacted communities, and support and capacity for analysis, grants, and outreach for community organizations;
Direct beneficial electrification planning to prioritize overburdened communities using expanded health and equity insight methods; and
Ensure new facilities will be ready for zero-emission vehicles with on-site solar, battery storage, and managed charging.
We must identify and track pollution sources, including indirect sources like warehouses, and employ diverse methods such as truck counting, community monitoring data, meteorological data, and satellite data, to transition to zero-emission vehicles, direct beneficial electrification investments effectively, and meaningfully improve air quality for all. Please act now to provide those most impacted by diesel pollution with the tools and support needed for cleaner air.
