Data to improve air quality environmental justice outcomes in South Chicago.

This brief provides data for policy changes on the intersection of polluting industrial facilities, marginalized communities, and the dearth of air-quality monitors in those communities of South Chicago. The allocation of air-quality monitors is determined by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA). Our data demonstrate that the air quality and subsequent health of Chicago's marginalized communities are chronically threatened by the expansion of polluting industries coupled with inadequate air-quality monitoring.

Asthma and obesity: endotoxin another insult to add to injury?

Low-grade inflammation is often an underlying cause of several chronic diseases such as asthma, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Defining the mediators of such chronic low-grade inflammation often appears dependent on which disease is being investigated. However, downstream systemic inflammatory cytokine responses in these diseases often overlap, noting there is no doubt more than one factor at play to heighten the inflammatory response.