Amazon 'last-mile' warehouses deliver more pollution than packages to people living nearby, study...

In a first-of-its-kind research project, a University of Washington team studied the impact of pollution from delivering packages.

They focused on Amazon 'last-mile' delivery stations in the Seattle metro area, the last stops before a package hits your doorstep. The team found that people who live within 2 miles of these hubs are exposed to more delivery-related air pollution than people in outlying areas.

"The distribution center, it's where everything comes and goes," said Anne Goodchild, director of the UW's Urban Freight Lab and a co-author of the study. "So if you live closer to that, you are closer to all of the traffic, whereas if you live farther away then really the only traffic you're exposed to is the stuff that's coming to your house or your neighbor's house."

There are eight “last minute” hubs in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue-Everett region.