Identifying inequitable exposure to toxic air pollution in racialized and low-income neighbourhoods to support pollution prevention

Abstract

Abstract.Numerous environmental justice studies have confirmed a relationship between population characteristics such as low-income or minority status and the location of environmental health hazards. However, studies of the health risks from exposure to harmful substances often do not consider their toxicological characteristics. We used two different methods, the unit-hazard and the distance-based approach, to evaluate demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population residing near industrial facilities in the City of Toronto, Canada. In addition to the mass of air emissions obtained from the national pollutant release inventory (NPRI), we also considered their toxicity using toxic equivalency potential (TEP) scores. Results from the unit-hazard approach indicate no significant difference in the proportion of low-income individuals living in host versus non-host census tracts (t(107) = 0.3, P = 0.735). However, using the distance-based approach, the proportion of low-income individuals was significantly higher (+5.1%, t(522) = 6.0, P <0.001) in host tracts, while the indicator for "racialized" communities ("visible minority") was 16.1% greater (t(521) = 7.2, P <0.001) within 2 km of a NPRI facility. When the most toxic facilities by non-carcinogenic TEP score were selected, the rate of visible minorities living near the most toxic NPRI facilities was significantly higher (+12.9%, t(352) = 3.5, P = 0.001) than near all other NPRI facilities. TEP scores were also used to identify areas in Toronto that face a double burden of poverty and air toxics exposure in order to prioritise pollution prevention.

Exposure to ambient air pollution in Canada and the risk of adult leukemia

“…In addition, many environmental studies conducted using incident cases of leukemia have noted possible under ascertainment (Daniels and Schubauer-Berigan, 2011). It is often the case that higher concentrations of NO 2 are related to a greater density in the road network and higher volumes of traffic (Beckerman et al, 2008) and these areas more often than not comprise people in lower socioeconomic groups (Kershaw et al, 2013). Thus, underascertainment of leukemia in lower socioeconomic populations who experience higher exposures to air pollution may be responsible for this effect.…”

Remote Sensing in Environmental Justice Research—A Review

“…In the vast variety of studies covering environmental justice issues each one tends to emphasize findings from a specific thematic field. However, while a great share of studies employ spatial data at some point of their analysis (e.g., [17,30,31]), some scholars criticize that frequently spatial data are not used correctly, which then leads to analyses being characterized as "essentially aspatial" [32,33]. They point out that the chosen spatial entities do not represent a suitable entity for analyzing fine scale local characteristics and disparities.…”

“…Environmental justice research studies which focused on air pollutants identified stronger exposures of low-income or racialized neighborhoods in Canada (e.g., [30]), Great Britain (e.g., [16]), and Germany (e.g., [18]). In a most recent study Collins et al [91] were able to find that the exposure towards air pollution might also be dependent on the sexual orientation which might in turn be linked to social discrimination.…”

“…In recent research, various techniques were applied to integrate environmental data into the predefined spatial units. Thereby, applied methods range from distance based methods and kernel density estimations (e.g., [30]), statistical aggregation (e.g., [50,143]) to point data extrapolation (e.g., [17]). Pham et al [70] and Apparicio et al [31] applied spatial population-based rescaling to increase the spatial resolution of census data to city block levels.…”

Urban air pollution, poverty, violence and health – Neurological and immunological aspects as mediating factors

“…The association between urbanization and violence might specifically operate through rapid and accelerated growth of cities (World Bank, 2011), which in turn causes disrupted infrastructure with deteriorated living standards, inequitable exposures to toxic air pollution, increased weapon availability, and youth unemployment (Cassidy et al, 2014;Patel and Burkle, 2012;Kershaw et al, 2013). a recent field study on urban violence in several countries (i.e., kenya, south africa, haiti, brazil, timor-leste) demonstrated that so called "no go zones" emerge in certain neighborhoods with concentrated poverty and social exclusion, where poor and marginalized individuals become stuck in vicious cycles of poverty and violence (World Bank, 2011).…”