Downscaling Environmental Justice Analysis: Determinants of Household-Level Hazardous Air Pollutant Exposure in Greater Houston

Social Science & Medicine

Morales

2017

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Studies have demonstrated disparate exposures to carcinogenic hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in neighborhoods with high densities of Black and Hispanic residents in the US. Asians are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the US, yet they have been underemphasized in previous studies of environmental health and injustice. This cross-sectional study investigated possible disparities in residential exposure to carcinogenic HAPs among Asian Americans, including Asian American subgroups in the US (including all 50 states and the District of Columbia, n = 71,208 US census tracts) using National Air Toxics Assessment and US Census data. In an unadjusted analysis, Chinese and Korean Americans experience the highest mean cancer risks from HAPs, followed by Blacks. The aggregated Asian category ranks just below Blacks and above Hispanics, in terms of carcinogenic HAP risk. Multivariate models adjusting for socioeconomic status, population density, urban location, and geographic clustering show that an increase in proportion of Asian residents in census tracts is associated with significantly greater cancer risk from HAPs. Neighborhoods with higher proportions (as opposed to lower proportions) of Chinese, Korean, and South Asian residents have significantly greater cancer risk burdens relative to Whites. Tracts with higher concentrations of Asians speaking a non-English language and Asians that are US-born have significantly greater cancer risk burdens. Asian Americans experience substantial residential exposure to carcinogenic HAPs in US census tracts and in the US more generally.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asian Americans and disproportionate exposure to carcinogenic hazardous air pollutants: A national study

Social Science & Medicine

Morales

2017

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“…This cluster definition was selected because it corresponds with spatiotemporal dimensions of the built-environment associated with the historical-geographical formation of environmental injustice (Bolin et al, 2005; Pulido, 2000), and because it enables us to adjust for contextual factors that vary substantially nationwide. Similar cluster definitions have been used previously (Collins et al, 2015a; Collins et al, 2015b; Collins et al, 2017). GEEs require specification of a within-cluster dependency correlation matrix (Liang and Zeger, 1986).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental injustice and sexual minority health disparities: A national study of inequitable health risks from air pollution among same-sex partners

Social Science & Medicine

Morales

2017

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Air pollution is deleterious to human health, and numerous studies have documented racial and socioeconomic inequities in air pollution exposures. Despite the marginalized status of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations, no national studies have examined if they experience inequitable exposures to air pollution. This cross-sectional study investigated inequities in the exposure of same-sex partner households to hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in the US. We examined cancer and respiratory risks from HAPs across 71,207 census tracts using National Air Toxics Assessment and US Census data. We calculated population-weighted mean cancer and respiratory risks from HAPs for same-sex male, same-sex female and heterosexual partner households. We used generalized estimating equations (GEEs) to examine multivariate associations between sociodemographics and health risks from HAPs, while focusing on inequities based on the tract composition of same-sex, same-sex male and same-sex female partners. We found that mean cancer and respiratory risks from HAPs for same-sex partners are 12.3% and 23.8% greater, respectively, than for heterosexual partners. GEEs adjusting for racial/ethnic and socioeconomic status, population density, urban location, and geographic clustering show that living in census tracts with high (vs. low) proportions of same-sex partners is associated with significantly greater cancer and respiratory risks from HAPs, and that living in same-sex male partner enclaves is associated with greater risks than living in same-sex female partner enclaves. Results suggest that some health disparities experienced by LGBT populations (e.g. cancer, asthma) may be compounded by environmental exposures. Findings highlight the need to extend the conceptual framework for explaining LGBT health disparities beyond psycho-behavioral mechanisms translating social stress into illness to include environmental mechanisms. Because psycho-behavioral and environmental factors may together exacerbate health disparities, we call for a shift toward interdisciplinary research on LGBT health that takes into account cumulative risks, including the role of environmental exposures.

“…The Collins et al [16] study represents the first attempt to directly incorporate risk perception as an explanatory variable in EJ analysis, but found a statistically non-significant relationship between survey participants’ air pollution health risk perceptions and their exposure to air toxics and cancer risk. The only risk perception study that focused specifically on outdoor air pollution in the Houston metropolitan area [36] concluded that perceptions of local air quality were not consistent with actual readings from air monitoring stations, but were shaped by other factors such as access to information and socioeconomic characteristics.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Differences in Perceptions of Air Pollution Health Risk: Does Environmental Exposure Matter?

Chakraborty

et al. 2017

IJERPH

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This article extends environmental risk perception research by exploring how potential health risk from exposure to industrial and vehicular air pollutants, as well as other contextual and socio-demographic factors, influence racial/ethnic differences in air pollution health risk perception. Our study site is the Greater Houston metropolitan area, Texas, USA—a racially/ethnically diverse area facing high levels of exposure to pollutants from both industrial and transportation sources. We integrate primary household-level survey data with estimates of excess cancer risk from ambient exposure to industrial and on-road mobile source emissions of air toxics obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Statistical analysis is based on multivariate generalized estimation equation models which account for geographic clustering of surveyed households. Our results reveal significantly higher risk perceptions for non-Hispanic Black residents and those exposed to greater cancer risk from industrial pollutants, and also indicate that gender influences the relationship between race/ethnicity and air pollution risk perception. These findings highlight the need to incorporate measures of environmental health risk exposure in future analysis of social disparities in risk perception.