In recent years, advocates have expressed concern about the exponential growth of dollar stores in low-income communities, given their limited stock of healthy foods, and several municipalities in the U.S. have passed novel policies to curb the proliferation of these stores. The purpose of this scan is to create a legal database to inform future healthy retail policies and programs. Legal mapping methods were used to identify local policies aimed at moderating dollar store proliferation. A search yielded 25 policies that met the inclusion criteria, all enacted between 2018 and 2020. Recent policies aiming to slow local dollar store growth were mostly passed in low-income communities of color. All identified policies were passed in either the Midwest or South. The majority of municipalities that passed the policies had populations where more than half of residents identified as non-Hispanic Black or Hispanic and where the poverty rate was greater than the national average. Twelve (48%) municipalities imposed temporary moratoria halting new dollar stores from opening, and ten (40%) banned new construction within a specified distance of an existing dollar store. Key themes identified from analysis of policies’ purpose statements included increasing healthy food availability, diversifying local businesses, and improving community safety. These findings may be useful to leaders in other communities seeking to potentially moderate the impact of dollar stores on community health, as well as researchers and policy makers seeking to evaluate the efficacy of existing policies.
Coastal and riverine communities in the United States are largely unprepared for the projected effects of the climate crisis, including more intense storm surges, sea level rise, and increased precipitation. Flooding poses its own hazards, but in recent years, chemical releases triggered by extreme weather, such as hurricanes, have become more frequent, exposing nearby communities to toxic chemicals in the midst of natural disaster. This article reviews the public health implications of chemical releases triggered by extreme weather and provides commentary on possible policy solutions. The Gulf Coast, where there is an abundance of chemical facilities, is particularly vulnerable to these events, one of the latest examples being the August 2020 BioLab chlorine factory fire in Lake Charles, Louisiana, during Hurricane Laura. Low-wealth, Black, and Hispanic communities are disproportionately located near high-risk chemical facilities. The cumulative burden of flooding, toxic chemical releases, and other social stressors borne of systemic racism harms these communities, highlighting a critical environmental injustice. The federal and state governments have failed to develop regulatory safeguards that would prevent chemical releases triggered by extreme storms. State regulators should make facility reporting data available to the public and establish a regulatory regime for aboveground storage tanks. State regulators should also complete an analysis of flood risks to high-risk chemical facilities and impacts on historically disenfranchised communities, require permitted facilities to implement climate-responsive spill preventions practices, and establish a task force that can investigate strategies to prevent climate-driven chemical disaster and engage key stakeholders.
The major use of ethylene oxide is as a chemical intermediate in the manufacture of ethylene glycol.Ethylene oxide is also used as a sterilizing agent for medical equipment and a fumigating agent for spices. The acute (short-term) effects of ethylene oxide in humans consist mainly of central nervous system depression and irritation of the eyes and mucous membranes. Chronic (long-term) exposure to ethylene oxide in humans can cause irritation of the eyes, skin, nose, throat, and lungs, and damage to the brain and nervous system. There also is some evidence linking ethylene oxide exposure to
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