Environmental injustice along the US–Mexico border: residential proximity to industrial parks in Tijuana, Mexico

Abstract

Research in the Global North (e.g., US, Europe) has revealed robust patterns of environmental injustice whereby low income and minority residents face exposure to industrial hazards in their neighborhoods. A small body of research suggests that patterns of environmental injustice may diverge between the Global North and South due to differing urban development trajectories. This study uses quantitative environmental justice methods to examine spatial relationships between residential socio-demographics and industrial parks in Tijuana, Baja California Norte, Mexico using 2010 census data for Tijuana's 401 neighborhoods and municipality-provided locations of industrial parks in the city. Results of spatial lag regression models reveal that formal development is significantly associated with industrial park density, and it accounts for the significant effect of higher socioeconomic status (measured using mean education) on greater industrial density. Higher proportions of female-headed households are also significantly associated with industrial park density, while higher proportions of children and recent migrants are not. The formal development findings align with other studies in Mexico and point to the importance of urban development trajectories in shaping patterns of environmental injustice. The risks for female-headed households are novel in the Mexican context. One potential explanation is that women factory workers live near their places of employment. A second, albeit counterintuitive explanation, is the relative economic advantage experienced by female-headed households in Mexico.

Impact, efficiency, inequality, and injustice of urban air pollution: variability by emission location

“…exposure efficiency) indicated that total pollution inhaled per gram emitted was 14%-17% lower for the non-LEZ route than for the LEZ route. These results reinforce how spatially targeted reductions can reduce multiple exposure metrics (here, exposure efficiency and injustice) [9]. Importantly, we found that our predictions could not be replicated with simple linear regression models.…”

“…For conditions in 2006, reducing minorities' NO 2 concentrations to levels experienced by whites would reduce ischemic heart disease mortality by ∼7000 deaths per year [7]; that health benefit is equivalent to 25 million people increasing their physical activity level from 'insufficiently active' (<2.5 hours/week of physical activity) to 'sufficiently active' (>2.5 hours/week of physical activity), or 3 million fewer adults beginning to smoke [7]. Although more widely documented and researched in the US, disparities also exist globally [9,10]. Disparities in the burden that racial or other groups bear from environmental risks are described by the term 'environmental injustice.…”

Una revisión de la investigación sobre justicia ambiental urbana en Latinoamérica

“…En Juárez la población más vulnerable son los menores de 10 años, dado que la probabilidad de que se vean afectados por riesgos biofísicos es significativamente más alta (Collins & Grineski, 2009). Por otro lado, en Tijuana se concluye que hay mayor exposición a contaminación entre las madres cabezas de familia y los niños menores de 12 años por proximidad a parques industriales (Grineski et al 2015), y en Sonora que las comunidades vulnerables tienen una menor capacidad de prevención de la erosión y del control de inundaciones (Norman et al 2012).…”

Sexual Orientation, Gender, and Environmental Injustice: Unequal Carcinogenic Air Pollution Risks in Greater Houston

“…Although the role of gender oppression in environmental inequality formation remains under-theorized and has been a focus of too little empirical analysis, studies have documented how women experience and resist discriminatory environmental policies in workplaces, residential areas, and other spaces (Buckingham and Kulcur 2010). In terms of the distributive EJ literature, studies have documented the disproportionate exposure of female-headed households to environmental harm in the US and abroad (Downey 2005; Grineski et al 2015a), which reflects how the intersection of oppressive racial, class and gender constructions may unjustly burden women with acute pollution exposures.…”

“…Disparate residential exposures based on disadvantaged gender status (e.g., among female-headed households) have been documented in the distributive EJ literature (Downey 2005; Grineski et al 2015a), yet no published studies have examined whether disproportionate environmental risks exist based on minority sexual orientation. The presence of this knowledge gap is surprising since there is a longstanding geographical literature focused on the marginalization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and the sociospatial formation of gay urban districts in the US (and elsewhere across the world) (Adler and Brenner 1992; Brown 2014; Castells 1983; Hubbard 2011), and a more recently emerging body of work focused on the sexuality of environmental domination and alternative queer ecologies (Gandy 2012; Newman et al 2004; Sandilands 2002).…”