Though redline districts in U.S. cities may seem only a remnant of the country’s racist past, their legacies continue to affect policy and harm human health. In some districts, even the soil, in a sense, has been tainted by racist urban planning decades ago. 

At the APHA 2025 session “Building Collective Power and Leadership: Preparing the Next Generation for Whatever the Future Holds,” early-career researchers presented their environmental justice work. They underscored that, despite federal grant cuts, environmental advocacy and research will continue.

As with many working-class American cities, Buffalo, New York, is a checkerboard of neighborhoods shortchanged on city funding and basic accommodations. On the east side, many redlined neighborhoods sit in the shadow of polluting industries. 

Lourdes Vera, assistant professor of sociology and environment and sustainability at the University at Buffalo, is part of a collaborative that in 2024 gathered soil samples in an East Buffalo neighborhood. The collaborative tested 60 residential yards, finding lead soil concentrations beyond what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe. 

The contamination likely comes from a nearby shuttered lead smelter and possibly lead water pipes originally installed by the city in the neighborhood, the team concluded. 

Lead exposure can cause or contribute to high blood pressure, kidney damage and neurological harm. Children are especially susceptible to lead harm.

Vera marveled at how perfectly the original redline districts in East Buffalo overlay the current neighborhoods showing lead-tainted soil.

“The process of redlining still exists today but in a subtler way,” Vera said.

The collaborative is currently hosting town halls and community meetings and discussing mitigation options with city leaders.

Ensuring the continuation of environmental justice means getting the next generation excited about the work. In Kansas City, Kansas, Jennifer Ahumada, of the Street Science Institute, helped develop an environmental workshop with seven high school students and young adults. Participants learned about air quality monitoring, data science, environmental health policy and community science. Each developed a chosen environmental project, such as comparing air quality in various Kansas City neighborhoods. Results were presented to city officials. 

Eight months later, most workshop alumni remain in the field and are considering a career in environmental justice.

“They are capable of being community leaders; they just need the opportunity,” Ahumada said.

Photo by Erik Mclean, courtesy Pexels.