Read the full story in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Illinois has been a freight hub since its beginnings, from waterways to rails to interstate highways to modern intermodal transportation centers to an unprecedented proliferation of warehouses to satisfy the demands of online shoppers.
Increasingly, warehouses crop up beside neighborhoods, exposing people living nearby to exhaust fumes from starting, stopping and idling trucks. And these diesel plumes carry a host of potential health threats to the public, including low birth rates, respiratory illnesses, even dementia.
These are the findings of a recent report from the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group that, using proximity-mapping technology, found that about 15 million people live within a half mile of a warehouse in 10 states it examined, including more than one million children under 5 years old.
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