Invited Perspective: Moving from Characterizing to Addressing Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Air Pollution Exposure

Levy, Jonathan I.

doi:10.1289/ehp10076

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Findings from environmental justice (EJ) research documents higher-than-average exposures and attributable health risks for communities of color in the United States (US). − Studies on the underlying causes of environmental disparities − point to longstanding systems of racism, oppression, and unequal power, reflecting actions by individuals, companies, and government (more detailed literature review in the SI − ). Current explanations generally focus on neighborhood- and urban-scale inequalities, rather than the nature and causes of national-scale disparities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Decomposition of Air Pollution Concentrations Highlights Historical Causes for Current Exposure Disparities in the United States

Liu

Marshall

2023

Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett.

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Racial–ethnic disparities in exposure to air pollution in the United States (US) are well documented. Studies on the causes of these disparities highlight unequal systems of power and longstanding systemic racismfor example, redlining, white flight, and racial covenantswhich reinforced racial segregation and wealth gaps and which concentrated polluting land uses in communities of color. Our analysis is based on empirical estimates of ambient concentrations for two important pollutants (NO2 and PM2.5). We show that spatially decomposed concentrations can be used to infer and quantify types of root causes for local- to national-scale disparities. Urban-scale segregation is important yet reflects less than half of the overall national disparities. Other historical causes of national exposure disparities include those that led current populations of Black, Asian, and Hispanic Americans to live in larger cities; those outcomes are consistent with, for example, greater economic opportunity in large cities, land-takings from non-White farmers, and racism in homesteading and between-state migration. Our results suggest that contemporary national exposure disparities in the US reflect a broad set of historical local- to national-scale mechanismsincluding racist laws and actions that include, but also extend beyond, urban-scale aspectsand offer a first attempt to quantify their relative importance.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Decomposition of Air Pollution Concentrations Highlights Historical Causes for Current Exposure Disparities in the United States

Liu

Marshall

2023

Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett.

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“…Some argue that characterization of the problem is not enough, and it is time to move toward addressing the inequalities . Recent air quality modeling results suggest that national average racial-ethnic inequalities can be eliminated with modest emission reductions (∼1% of total emissions) using a location-specific approach rather than the two main regulatory strategies that are currently employed by the U.S. EPA and state/local air pollution agencies (i.e., State Implementation Plans to meet NAAQS and sector-specific Best Achievable Control Technology [BACT] requirements) .…”

Section: Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air Pollution Inequality in the Denver Metroplex and its Relationship to Historical Redlining

Bradley,

Croes,

Harkins

et al. 2024

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Prior studies have shown that people of color (POC) in the United States are exposed to higher levels of pollution than non-Hispanic White people. We show that the city of Denver, Colorado, displays similar race-and ethnicity-based air pollution disparities by using a combination of high-resolution satellite data, air pollution modeling, historical demographic information, and areal apportionment techniques. TROPOMI NO 2 columns and modeled PM 2.5 concentrations from 2019 are higher in communities subject to redlining. We calculated and compared Spearman coefficients for pollutants and race at the census tract level for every city that underwent redlining to contextualize the disparities in Denver. We find that the location of polluting infrastructure leads to higher populations of POC living near point sources, including 40% higher Hispanic and Latino populations. This influences pollution distribution, with annual average PM 2.5 surface concentrations of 6.5 μg m −3 in census tracts with 0−5% Hispanic and Latino populations and 7.5 μg m −3 in census tracts with 60−65% Hispanic and Latino populations. Traffic analysis and emission inventory data show that POC are more likely to live near busy highways. Unequal spatial distribution of pollution sources and POC have allowed for pollution disparities to persist despite attempts by the city to rectify them. Finally, we identify the core causes of the pollution disparities to provide direction for remediation.

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“…The exposure information can then be used for assessing health risks [7] and exploring associations with health outcomes, in particular, children's health [8] . The data will also enhance our understanding of the extent to which minority concentrated communities bear a disproportionate burden of environmental pollution [ 9 , 10 ], in response to EPA's environmental justice movement [11] .…”

Section: Objectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Dataset of atmospheric concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the Memphis Tri-state Area

Jia

Smith

2023

Data in Brief

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Invited Perspective: Moving from Characterizing to Addressing Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Air Pollution Exposure

Cited by 12 publications

References 9 publications

Spatial Decomposition of Air Pollution Concentrations Highlights Historical Causes for Current Exposure Disparities in the United States

Spatial Decomposition of Air Pollution Concentrations Highlights Historical Causes for Current Exposure Disparities in the United States

Air Pollution Inequality in the Denver Metroplex and its Relationship to Historical Redlining

Dataset of atmospheric concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the Memphis Tri-state Area

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