In South Florida, ‘black snow’ makes breathing difficult for some Black and Latino residents
The ash winds up everywhere — it’s in the laundry, on cars and blankets vegetation in backyard gardens.
Black snow, as the ash is known, flutters down, covering homes in parts of South Florida intermittently from October through May each year, as planned burns are carried out in thousands of acres of sugar cane fields to help the crops.
People who live around the south shore of Lake Okeechobee, an area that includes predominantly Black and Latino communities and many living in poverty, have complained for decades about the ash. While nearby sugar companies and farmers insist burnings are tightly regulated by the state, some residents say they stay in their homes with their windows shut in an effort to thwart respiratory illnesses.