Ecommerce is a boom for retailers and warehouse operators, but it’s a bust for air pollution and air quality.

A new study from researchers at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., finds that people living in communities located next to large warehouses are exposed to 20% more of a traffic-related air pollutant that can lead to asthma and other life-threatening health conditions.

“Increased truck traffic to and from these recently built large warehouses means people living downwind are inhaling an increased amount of harmful nitrogen dioxide pollution,” says Gaige Kerr, an assistant research professor of environmental and occupational health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. “Communities of color are disproportionately affected because they often live in close proximity to warehouses, especially dense clusters of warehouses.”

Ecommerce warehouses worsen air quality

Researchers measured nitrogen dioxide levels by using a satellite instrument from the European Space Agency to zero in from space on the nearly 150,000 large warehouses located across the U.S.

Trucks and other vehicles traveling to and from these large warehouses spew out nitrogen dioxide, particulates, and other harmful pollutants, the study says.

The researchers also looked at traffic information from the Federal Highway Administration and demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

A major cause of added pollution has been the boom in warehouse construction. That boom was spurred by record levels of ecommerce buying from consumers and businesses. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic fueled the explosion of the ecommerce industry and warehouses that receive and sort consumer goods. As a result, the transportation infrastructure needed to ship goods to warehouses and then on to consumers is enormous, according to the researchers. Amazon, specifically, an industry leader in ecommerce, operated 175,000 delivery vans and more than 37,000 semi-trailers in 2021.

Amazon is No. 1 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s database of North America’s largest online retailers based on web sales. It’s also No. 3 in the Global Online Marketplaces database, which ranks the 100 largest global marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV). Digital Commerce 360 projects Amazon’s total web sales in 2024 will reach $469.01 billion.

According to the study, although warehouses are located all over the US, 20% are concentrated in just 10 counties:

• Maricopa, Arizona
• Alameda, California
• Los Angeles, California
• Orange, California
• San Bernardino, California
• Miami-Dade, Florida
• Cook, Illinois
• Cuyahoga, Ohio
• Dallas, Texas
• Harris, Texas

Key findings from the study

• Although the average spike of nitrogen dioxide associated with warehouses was 20%, nitrogen dioxide levels near warehouses were even larger when there was greater heavy-duty vehicle activity near these facilities.
• Warehouses with more loading docks and parking spaces attract the most traffic. They are also associated with the highest nitrogen dioxide levels.
• Communities with large racial and ethnic minority populations are often located near warehouses. Thus, they inhale more nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants. The proportion of Hispanic and Asian people living close to the largest clusters of warehouses is about 250% higher than the average nationwide.

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