Regarding the article “Report: City’s no breath of fresh air” (March 26): As a Chicago physician, I see every day how air quality affects human health. Clean air is not a luxury — it is a basic requirement for healthy lungs, hearts and lives.
Poor air quality contributes to respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It worsens cardiovascular conditions, increases the risk of heart attacks and has been linked to adverse pregnancy outcomes and impaired childhood development. When pollution is elevated, emergency departments see increases in breathing difficulties, chest pain and hospital admissions — especially among children, older adults and those with chronic illness.
What is often overlooked is that these impacts are preventable. Policies and community actions that reduce emissions from vehicles lead directly to measurable improvements in public health. Cleaner air means fewer missed school and workdays, lower health care costs and healthier lives.
Air quality is not only an environmental issue; it is a medical one. Addressing it requires leadership, evidence-based policy and public engagement. Investments in clean energy, public transportation and responsible urban planning are investments in our health.
Chicago’s geography and infrastructure make this issue particularly urgent. Vehicle emissions, diesel freight traffic, rail yards and industrial activity all contribute to pollution hot spots. While weather patterns from Lake Michigan can sometimes help, they can also trap pollution close to where people live, work and go to school.
Improving air quality is one of the most effective preventive health measures we can take. Investments in cleaner transportation, expanded public transit, reduced diesel emissions and transition to clean energy do more than protect the environment — they reduce hospitalizations, lower health care costs and improve quality of life.
Clean air and the health of our children should not depend on a ZIP code. My duty is to protect the health of those I care for and to prevent disease. I urge our state policymakers to prioritize clean air initiatives and to recognize air quality as a public health issue. Please support efforts to ensure every Illinoisan can breathe safely.
I urge the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and legislators to advance and support the Warehouse Pollution Reduction Act (SB3732/HB5600), which would protect neighborhoods by putting mandatory buffers between large warehouses and homes, schools and hospitals, along with allowing meaningful community participation in permitting decisions.
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— Dr. Yvonne Collins, Chicago
Curbing warehouse emissions
As a graduate student at Northwestern University, I research the air quality and environmental justice implications of freight policy. My work has most recently focused on the Warehouse Pollution Reduction Act, or WPRA, a measure the Illinois legislature is considering that would reduce inequitable impacts of warehousing emissions.
Analyses show that 2 million Illinois residents live within a half mile of a warehouse, and they are disproportionately from racially diverse and low-income communities. Warehouses combine multiple emission sources — such as medium- and heavy-duty trucks, on-site generators and nonroad vehicles like forklifts. Collectively, these sources emit health-harming pollutants beyond particulate matter, such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and volatile organic compounds, which may have concentrated health impacts on communities living near warehouses.
Historically, air pollution has disproportionately impacted low-income and racially diverse communities in urban regions in the United States, including in Chicago. This is, in part, because these communities are more likely to be close to industrial cores, including near warehouses. Warehousing has grown in Illinois by over 30% in the past decade, often without meaningful community input about where new facilities are located. As a result, these communities face disproportionate exposure to diesel pollution, which is linked to higher rates of asthma, cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and other serious health outcomes. In effect, residents have little say in the health burdens imposed by these facilities, despite experiencing their impacts each and every day.
The WPRA is a multifaceted policy that aims to address the complexity of warehousing emissions. This policy uses a points-based system in which, based on how much a warehouse emits, it must proportionally reduce its emissions. There are many ways to earn these points, such as using electric freight trucks or even installing solar panels at the warehouse. Each facility is different, so instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, this method allows each warehouse operator to pick the points that fit best for them.
Targeted policies, such as the WPRA, can help lighten some of these disproportionate health impacts and create more equitable air quality in Illinois. I urge the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and state legislators to support the WPRA as it moves through the legislative process and for residents to get informed and involved with environmental policies impacting their communities.
— Anna Oehlerking, Evanston
340B doesn’t need ‘saving’
Legislation in Illinois that would dramatically expand the 340B program has been sold as a solution to high prescription drug costs. Supporters have also argued that the bill is necessary to “save” the 340B program. A closer look, however, suggests something quite different.
The federal 340B program will continue to exist whether or not SB2385 passes. Nothing in the state legislation determines the survival of the program. What the bill would do is expand a system that still lacks clear safeguards to ensure that patients actually see lower drug prices.
The 340B program was created to help vulnerable patients by allowing hospitals and clinics to purchase medications at steep discounts. But the program does not require those discounts to be passed on to patients at the pharmacy counter. SB2385 does not change that reality.
Supporters argue that hospitals already report data and undergo audits, but compliance audits are not the same as real transparency. Federal oversight primarily verifies eligibility and program rules. It does not show patients, employers or taxpayers how much revenue is generated through 340B or whether those savings lower prescription costs for patients.
That is not real transparency.
If lawmakers are serious about transparency, they should require clear public reporting on how 340B revenues are used and how much of those savings reduce patient costs. Patients and taxpayers deserve to see where the money goes and who truly benefits.
Access to care is important, but access without affordability offers limited comfort to families struggling to pay for their medications. Before expanding a system that lacks patient-focused protections, Illinois lawmakers should proceed carefully.
Strengthening accountability and ensuring savings reach those who need them most would better serve both patients and taxpayers.
— Dr. Sharon Allison-Ottey, CEO, Carlden Inc.
Preserve safety-net programs
Recently, I joined medical school deans from across the country on Capitol Hill as part of an Association of American Medical Colleges advocacy initiative to discuss health care challenges with policymakers. Those conversations reinforced an urgent reality: Academic health systems are essential to advancing medical innovation while serving as vital safety nets for communities like Chicago’s South Side.
These institutions do more than push the boundaries of science. They anchor local economies and expand access to care.
The core of this impact is research. The National Institutes of Health supports work that saves lives and drives discovery, with nearly 60% of its extramural funding flowing to medical schools and teaching health systems. For decades, this federal investment has positioned the U.S. as a global leader in biomedical innovation. Today, that leadership is at risk. Sustained NIH funding is essential not only to fuel discovery, but also to translate breakthroughs into improving and saving lives.
At the same time, the nation is confronting a growing physician shortage projected to reach 86,000 by 2036. Institutions are addressing this challenge by training the next generation of physicians.
Their role as safety-net providers is equally critical. Although teaching hospitals make up just 5% of U.S. hospitals, they deliver nearly one-third of all Medicaid inpatient care. The University of Chicago Medical Center is a cornerstone of care for South Side residents, serving more Medicaid patients than any other hospital in Illinois.
Federal initiatives such as the 340B drug pricing program are indispensable to sustaining this mission. By enabling hospitals to purchase outpatient medications at reduced cost, 340B allows us to redirect resources toward essential services and programs that would otherwise be spent on drugs. 340B has helped make possible initiatives like our adult trauma center and will be vital to the success of our forthcoming cancer hospital, which will serve a community where cancer is the second leading cause of death.
These responsibilities — advancing research, training physicians and caring for vulnerable populations — place extraordinary demands on academic health systems.
Policies that protect research funding, strengthen the physician workforce and sustain safety-net programs are not optional. They are essential. Without them, health disparities in communities like the South Side will only deepen.
— Dr. Mark Anderson, dean and executive vice president for medical affairs, University of Chicago Medicine
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