The article reviews two decades of scholars' claims that exposures to pollution and other environmental risks are unequally distributed by race and class, examines case studies of environmental justice social movements and the history and politics of environmental justice policy making in the United States, and describes the emerging issue of global climate justice. The authors engage the contentious literature on how to quantitatively measure and document environmental injustice, especially the complex problems of having data of very different types and areas (such as zip codes, census tracts, or concentric circles) around polluting facilities or exposed populations. Also considered is the value of perspectives from critical race theory and ethnic studies for making sense of these social phenomena. The article concludes with a discussion of the globalization of the environmental justice movement, discourse, and issues, as well as with some policy implications of finding and understanding environmental justice. One unique feature of this review is its breadth and diversity, given the different approaches taken by the three coauthors.

The number of studies examining racial and socioeconomic disparities in the geographic distribution of environmental hazards and locally unwanted land uses has grown considerably over the past decade. Most studies have found statistically significant racial and socioeconomic disparities associated with hazardous sites. However there is considerable variation in the magnitude of racial and socioeconomic disparities found; indeed, some studies have found none. Uncertainties also exist about the underlying causes of the disparities. Many of these uncertainties can be attributed to the failure of the most widely used method for assessing environmental disparities to adequately account for proximity between the hazard under investigation and nearby residential populations. In this article, we identify the reasons for and consequences of this failure and demonstrate ways of overcoming these shortcomings by using alternate, distance-based methods. Through the application of such methods, we show how assessments about the magnitude and causes of racial and socioeconomic disparities in the distribution of hazardous sites are changed. In addition to research on environmental inequality, we discuss how distance-based methods can be usefully applied to other areas of demographic research that explore the effects of neighborhood context on a range of social outcomes.

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Objectives-We sought to demonstrate the advantages of using individual-level survey data in quantitative environmental justice analyses and to provide new evidence regarding racial and socioeconomic disparities in the distribution of polluting industrial facilities. Methods-Addresses of respondents in the baseline sample of the Americans' Changing LivesStudy and polluting industrial facilities in the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory were geocoded, allowing assessments of distances between respondents' homes and polluting facilities. The associations between race and other sociodemographic characteristics and living within 1 mile (1.6 km) of a polluting facility were estimated via logistic regression.Results-Blacks and respondents at lower educational levels and, to a lesser degree, lower income levels were significantly more likely to live within a mile of a polluting facility. Racial disparities were especially pronounced in metropolitan areas of the Midwest and West and in suburban areas of the South.Conclusions-Our results add to the historical record demonstrating significant disparities in exposures to environmental hazards in the US population and provide a paradigm for studying changes over time in links to health.Concerns about the health effects of the disproportionate exposure to environmental burdens have been a major driving force in mobilizing minority communities into a national environmental justice movement. 1,2 More and more research suggests racial and Correspondence should be sent to Paul Mohai, PhD, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, 440 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1041 (pmohai@umich.edu). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by clicking on the "Reprints/ Eprints" link. Contributors P. Mohai originated the study, conducted the statistical analyses, and led the writing of the article. P.M. Lantz helped to conceptualize ideas and contributed to the design of the analyses and writing of the article. J. Morenoff and J.S. House helped to conceptualize ideas and contributed to the design of the analyses. R.P. Mero provided data management and statistical support. All of the authors helped to interpret findings, reviewed drafts of the article, and participated in making revisions. Human Participant ProtectionThis research was approved by the institutional review board of the University of Michigan. All study respondents provided informed verbal consent. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptAm J Public Health. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 November 1. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript socioeconomic disparities in exposure to environmental hazards, 3-6 but nearly all of the studies in this area have yielded only indirect evidence, describing the demographic composition of areas and their proximity to hazardous sites. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] In this "spatial coincidence"20 or "unit-hazard coincidence" 21 methodology, predefined geographic units of a...

Exposing children to environmental pollutants during important times of physiological development can lead to long-lasting health problems, dysfunction, and disease. The location of children's schools can increase their exposure. We examined the extent of air pollution from industrial sources around public schools in Michigan to find out whether air pollution jeopardizes children's health and academic success. We found that schools located in areas with the highest air pollution levels had the lowest attendance rates-a potential indicator of poor health-and the highest proportions of students who failed to meet state educational testing standards. Michigan and many other states currently do not require officials considering a site for a new school to analyze its environmental quality. Our results show that such requirements are needed. For schools already in existence, we recommend that their environmental quality should be investigated and improved if necessary.