Latino Communities at Risk

The report finds that millions of Latinos are exposed to toxic air pollutants and ozone smog from oil and gas facilities, leading to elevated cancer risks and childhood asthma attacks. These health threats are exacerbated by higher poverty rates and lower health insurance coverage within Latino populations. The authors argue for comprehensive EPA regulations covering both new and existing oil and gas infrastructure to reduce methane and toxic emissions.

• Over 1.81 million Latinos, representing 4 percent of the national Latino population, live within a half-mile radius of an active oil and gas facility. Texas has the highest number of affected individuals, with over 800,000 people in this radius.
• Approximately 1.78 million Latinos live in counties where the cancer risk from toxic emissions produced by the oil and gas industry exceeds the U.S. EPA's level of concern (one-in-a-million). While Latinos make up 17% of the total U.S. population, they constitute 20% of the population in these high-risk counties.
• Ozone smog resulting from oil and gas emissions is associated with 153,000 childhood asthma attacks and 112,000 lost school days annually for Latino communities. The most affected metropolitan areas include Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio-New Braunfels, Houston-The Woodlands, and Austin-Round Rock in Texas.
• Socioeconomic factors significantly increase the health burden on Latino communities. In 2014, 25 percent of the Hispanic population lived in poverty, and 26 percent of the Latino population under 65 were uninsured, compared to 10 percent for non-Latino whites.
• The report argues that current EPA methane standards are insufficient because they primarily cover new and modified facilities, leaving at least 75% of existing oil and gas infrastructure virtually unregulated.

APA

Fleischman, L., Kingland, D., Maxwell, C., & Rios, E. (2016). Latino Communities at Risk. Clean Air Task Force. https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/21094458/CATF_Pub_LatinoCommunitiesAtRisk.pdf

Chicago

Fleischman, Lesley, Declan Kingland, Christopher Maxwell, and Elena Rios. Latino Communities at Risk. Clean Air Task Force, 2016. https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/21094458/CATF_Pub_LatinoCommunitiesAtRisk.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Fleischman |first1=Lesley |last2=Kingland |first2=Declan |last3=Maxwell |first3=Christopher |last4=Rios |first4=Elena |title=Latino Communities at Risk |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=September 2016 |url=https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/21094458/CATF_Pub_LatinoCommunitiesAtRisk.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{fleischman2016latino, author = {Fleischman, Lesley and Kingland, Declan and Maxwell, Christopher and Rios, Elena}, title = {{Latino Communities at Risk}}, institution = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2016}, month = sep, url = {https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/21094458/CATF_Pub_LatinoCommunitiesAtRisk.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }