Units of CO2e in metric tons.
What the data does not show.
The data do not show emissions at the neighborhood-by-neighborhood level. The EDGAR data source calculates emissions for squares that are about 6 1/2 miles long by 6 1/2 miles. To put this perspective, the size of each pixel is about the size of the region of New Orleans that extends from Metairie Border to the Industrial Canal, from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain. At this scale, the data can show if New Orleans had more (or less) emissions than Lake Charles or St James Parish, but it could not show if one neighborhood in New Orleans had higher emissions than another neighborhood.
Overall, the scale of the EDGAR data is very useful to understand state and county-wide patterns, but it is not fine enough to answer every question about the relationships between communities and pollutants.
The data does not specifically show a person's exposure to pollution, but it can help advance studies that do.
The exact dose of toxic chemicals a person receives from air pollution depends on many factors, some are environmental, others individual and sociological. Examples of environmental factors that impact a person's risks include the quantity of emissions from a facility, their proximity to that facility, the prevailing winds, the height of the smokestack, the presence of structures that might block the pollution, and the presence of chemical pollutants from other sources. The health impacts of pollution depend on other factors like: whether a person smokes, has underlying health conditions, and has access to quality health care.