Connecting Air Pollution Exposure to Socioeconomic Status: A Cross-Sectional Study on Environmental Injustice among Pregnant Women in Scania, Sweden

Abstract

Environmental injustice, characterized by lower socioeconomic status (SES) persons being subjected to higher air pollution concentrations, was explored among pregnant women in Scania, Sweden. Understanding if the general reduction of air pollution recorded is enjoyed by all SES groups could illuminate existing inequalities and inform policy development. “Maternal Air Pollution in Southern Sweden”, an epidemiological database, contains data for 48,777 pregnancies in Scanian hospital catchment areas and includes births from 1999–2009. SES predictors considered included education level, household disposable income, and birth country. A Gaussian dispersion model was used to model women’s average NOX and PM2.5 exposure at home residence over the pregnancy period. Total concentrations were dichotomized into emission levels below/above respective Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Air objectives. The data were analyzed using binary logistic regression. A sensitivity analysis facilitated the investigation of associations’ variation over time. Lower-SES women born outside Sweden were disproportionately exposed to higher pollutant concentrations. Odds of exposure to NOX above Swedish EPA objectives reduced over time, especially for low-SES persons. Environmental injustice exists in Scania, but it lessened with declining overall air pollution levels, implying that continued air quality improvement could help protect vulnerable populations and further reduce environmental inequalities.

What comes to count as sustainable in Rosendal? : a study of how sustainability is being reproduced in an urban sociomaterial assemblage

“…However, there is also variation within nations and within urban areas in the consumption patterns that lead to such consequences and in who suffers the burdens thereof. A study conducted in the Skåne region of Sweden, showed how pregnant women of what was referred to as 'low socioeconomic status' were subjected to higher levels of air pollution than women of higher socioeconomic status (Flanagan et al 2019). A similar trend was found in a study across nine European metropolitan areas, where higher levels of air pollution was found in areas described as 'deprived' (Samoli et al 2019).…”

Air Pollution and Urban Green Space: Evidence of Environmental Injustice in Adama, Ethiopia

“…Environmental injustice was found to be present in Adama, as women of lower socioeconomic status had consistently greater odds of being exposed to higher levels of ambient NO 2 and NO x concentrations, using solid fuels that produce high levels of PM 2.5 , and living in areas that lack green space. Moreover, odds were stronger for ambient NO 2 exposure when using a higher exposure concentration cut-off (20 µg/m 3 ), which we have previously used when studying environmental injustice in Sweden (Flanagan et al, 2019), as opposed to Adama's mean (13.7 µg/m 3 ), illustrating lower SES persons' increasing risk of exposure to even higher levels of air pollution. These results are also in line with the few environmental injustice studies conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa.…”

“…The resulting modeled mean exposure levels of NO 2 and NO x (13.7 µg/m 3 and 29.9 µg/m 3 , respectively), were used to create the final, dichotomized exposure variable: "low exposure" (below the mean) and "high exposure" (above the mean). Additionally, NO 2 and NO x were dichotomized into emission levels below and above 20 µg/m 3 , which corresponds to the cutoff previously used to study environmental injustice in Sweden (Flanagan et al, 2019).…”

Exposures, Symptoms and Risk Perception among Office Workers in Relation to Nanoparticles in the Work Environment

“…This indicates that the group that had a doctoral degree generally worked in environments with relatively lower NP concentrations. Although several studies have shown higher exposure among groups with lower education and sociodemographic level [53][54][55], to our knowledge, there have not been studies comparing different groups among highly educated persons. There were no differences in risk perception between different groups of sex, age, or educational levels.…”