Since moving to the Martindale Brightwood area, Delana Ivey says her asthma has gotten worse.
“I had a basic rescue inhaler that cost around $16. Now I’m paying hundreds of dollars a month for asthma medications so I can breathe,” said Ivey. “I can’t afford my medication, so I’ve learned how to manage.”
According to The American Thoracic Society, asthma affects more than 20 million Americans, many of whom are children. Every day, 11 people in the U.S. die from asthma.
High asthma rates are only one of several health issues that are plaguing members of the near Northeastside community due to environmental effects. The Martindale Brightwood Environmental Justice Collaborative recently held a forum to alert the community about the problems and encourage residents to come together and tackle the issues.
In the early 1970s, the Indiana economic boom brought forth an abundance of warehouses, factories and businesses, but left the area filled with environmental toxins.
Elizabeth Gore, chairperson of the Martindale Brightwood Environmental Justice Collaborative, said the area’s issues were brought to the forefront four years ago when Rev. Ray Wilkins, former pastor of Scott United Methodist Church located on Andrew J. Brown Avenue, had plans to build on the church property. The project was stalled because of high levels of lead in the soil.
“We got the EPA to come out and look at the property. There were other yards in the neighborhood that were tested too. They dug up some dirt and found that those levels were very dangerous,” said Gore.
This is a concern because much of the Martindale Brightwood residents are senior citizens who enjoy gardening. Instead of growing plants in the soil, residents were instructed to grow their vegetables in plant boxes.
Citizens of this community are also concerned about how the high lead levels affect children.
Brent Furbee, medical director of the Indiana Poison Center said that in adults, chronic exposure to lead can cause behavioral changes, however in children, lead can cause developmental delay.
“The most vulnerable time for children is around age two or three. There could be behavioral changes and learning could be a big problem – their (mental) skills could be adversely affected. Kids should be tested periodically for lead,” said Furbee.
In adults, lead exposure can cause health issues such as kidney damage and anemia.
Some of the most common sources of lead are from indoor paint, soil along highways and older houses with lead solder on water pipes.
Gore said that the Marion County Health Department confirmed that the area also has high rates of asthma.
A portion of the neighborhood is flanked by Interstate 70. While residents can’t move the highway, they are petitioning the mayor’s office to have a wall built along the highway to keep out some of the air pollutants and are invoking “No Car Idling” zones on neighborhood streets among other measures.
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, asthma is more prevalent in African-Americans than whites and ethnic differences in asthma prevalence, morbidity and mortality are highly correlated with poverty, urban air quality, lack of patient education and inadequate medical care.
In addition to lead and asthma issues, the Martindale Brightwood area also faces high rates of illegal dumping, abandoned housing and brown fields, an urban development site that has been previously built on or environmentally contaminated and is currently unusable or abandoned.
“If you look at the statistics, we’re kind of the sick neighborhood. Maybe all of this has to do with the environment,” said Ivey.
Rep. Bill Crawford, D-Indianapolis, is a resident of the Martindale Brightwood area. While he is disappointed that such ills have persisted in his community, he is happy that residents are generating some results.
“I’m proud of them. The squeaky wheel gets the oil and this neighborhood has squeaked louder than anyone. The results are that there is attention being focused on this area,” said Crawford. “It’s slow, but at least we’re not being ignored.”
Gore and other active members are calling on the community at large to join in the efforts to reduce negative environmental effects on the Martindale Brightwood neighborhood and work to create a better life for residents.
Citizens have already made strides in obtaining stronger illegal dumping ordinances and are working with students at IUPUI on soil sampling for lead.
“Martindale Brightwood has been a forgotten community. We’re changing that. We needed to clean this up yesterday,” said Gore.
For more information on the Martindale Brightwood Environmental Justice Collaborative, call (317) 923-6817, (317) 677-4760 or visit www.ikecoalition.org.
