COLUMN LEFT/ MITCHELL S. BERNARD / CAROLYN L. GREEN : Toxic Air Is Inner City’s Silent Menace : Urban environmentalism means seeing pollution as a form of economic injustice.

Recent articles in the press on the findings of the Special Commission on Air Quality and the Economy would lead one to conclude that clean air is a luxury that Southern California can ill afford. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, and, by inference, those who push for strict clean-air rules, are seen as being increasingly out of step with economic reality, especially in light of the prolonged regional recession and the devastation of the Los Angeles riots. However, far from justifying a retreat, the commission findings should be viewed as a clean-air call to arms for those of us who are concerned about the fate of Southern California’s ethnic and low-income communities.

The double whammy of the riots and the recession forces us to confront the economic and racial injustice that daily assaults inner-city residents. But that injustice is not limited to economic neglect and societal distrust or indifference. It pervades the very air that inner-city dwellers breathe.

Recent studies conducted by environmental and health researchers document this unsurprising fact: A disproportionate number of California’s polluting facilities are in lower-income communities of color in urban Los Angeles. Each year in California, millions of pounds of toxic chemicals are emitted into the air. Some of these substances, such as hexavalent chromium and benzene, are known to cause cancer. Others, such as lead and toluene, have been linked to reproductive harm.

A 1989 USC Medical School study of child autopsies found that 80% of the bodies examined had “notable” lung abnormalities; 27% had severe lesions on portions of the lung most likely to be impaired by airborne toxic substances. The lung capacity of children in Los Angeles is reduced, on average, by 10% to 15% compared to children who reside in less polluted environments. Cumulative effects heighten the danger in neighborhoods where more than one facility emits noxious fumes.

Environmental degradation injures everyone, but poor, disempowered communities suffer a disproportionate share of the adverse impact. In this sense, environmental injustice is bound inextricably with economic and racial inequities.

The sobering L.A. riots and the recession present environmentalists and inner-city residents with an opportunity to forge a powerful alliance. Environmental activists who have not ventured into the urban center must gain credibility by persuading their natural inner-city constituents that the environment does not stop at the borders of the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The environment is everywhere we live. Community activists must persuade those who suffer most from urban pollution that environmental injustice is linked to and exacerbates other forms of debilitating discrimination. A vital partnership between environmentalists and urban dwellers can help empower communities to control their own future and ensure that environmental risks are distributed fairly across economic, racial and community lines.

Seizing on Southern California’s social and economic woes, some anti-environmentalists have sought to turn back the clock on environmental protection. This is a cynical strategy to pit environmentalists against inner-city residents who need jobs to support their families and economic development to rebuild their communities. Environmentalists must not allow the debate to be cast in terms of clean air versus the economy.

Opponents of environmental protection laws peddle the spurious theory that excessive government regulation, rather than their own failed vision, has destroyed the economy. The commission is right to ask that the AQMD be responsive to the needs and concerns of the business community. But industry is not the only interest with a stake in the outcome of the clean-air debate. The business community must realize that the procedural and substantive protections afforded by our environmental laws benefit precisely those underemployed, underrepresented communities on whose behalf it claims to be speaking.

The ongoing economic and social crisis underlines the importance of bridging our vast economic and racial divides. The environmental community can help speed the rejuvenation of the overall economy by joining forces with inner-city workers and dwellers, whose survival depends on economic and environmental justice, to make certain that both come about.