During a tuberculosis scare in 1934 a New York Health Commissioner study disproved the belief that people of color suffered in greater numbers than whites. The New York Age: National Negro Weekly reported that the study which compared Harlem to Red Hook that the opposite was true.
Red Hook was selected for the study because of its concentration of low income whites.

"These figures are interesting in view of the fact that the colored population of Harlem total 69.1 per cent, while in Red Hook it is 3.2 per cent. The total population of Harlem is 205,829, while that of the Red Hook-Gowanus section is 185,474. The results of these two studies, too, show that tuberculosis cases in both districts among the whites are almost four and one quarter times greater than among the colored.”