Structural Racism as an Environmental Justice Issue: A Multilevel Analysis of the State Racism Index and Environmental Health Risk from Air Toxics

Abstract

Communities of color and poor neighborhoods are disproportionately exposed to more air pollution—a pattern known as environmental injustices. Environmental injustices increase susceptibility to negative health outcomes among residents in affected communities. The structural mechanisms distributing environmental injustices in the USA are understudied. Bridging the literatures on the social determinants of health and environmental justice highlights the importance of the environmental conditions for health inequalities and sheds light on the institutional mechanisms driving environmental health inequalities. Employing a critical quantitative methods approach, we use data from an innovative state racism index to argue that systematic racialized inequalities in areas from housing to employment increase outdoor airborne environmental health risks in neighborhoods. Results of a multilevel analysis in over 65,000 census tracts demonstrate that tracts in states with higher levels of state-level Black–white gaps report greater environmental health risk exposure to outdoor air pollution. The state racism index explains four-to-ten percent of county- and state-level variation in carcinogenic risk and noncarcinogenic respiratory system risks from outdoor air toxics. The findings suggest that the disproportional exposure across communities is tied to systematic inequalities in environmental regulation and other structural elements such as housing and incarceration. Structural racism is an environmental justice issue.

Prenatal Cannabis Use and Offspring Autism-Related Behaviors: Examining Maternal Stress as a Moderator in a Black American Cohort

“…Future studies should explore this possibility, particularly in Black samples where structural racism might lead to greater exposures to potentially harmful toxicants. For example, Black people and individuals of low SES are more likely to be exposed to air pollution due to residential segregation (Alvarez, 2022;Brailsford et al, 2018;Bravo et al, 2016).…”

Critical Environmental Injustice: A Case Study Approach to Understanding Disproportionate Exposure to Toxic Emissions

“…Environmental justice research and activism have been crucial in identifying and attempting to address environmental inequalities, particularly those related to toxic sources, emissions, and exposure (e.g., [ 11 , 12 ]). Environmental justice research has shown that such environmental inequalities are linked to racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequities in the distribution of various environmental hazards and risks in the U.S., particularly across urban areas, with numerous studies identifying how and where environmental hazards are distributed unevenly across communities and places (e.g., [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]).…”

An equity and environmental justice assessment of anti-science actions during the Trump administration

“…[ 3 ]. Evidence continues to build, making it ever clearer that underserved communities face disproportionately higher exposure to environmental harms [ 6 , 7 ], that may cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer, and death [ 8 , 10 ].…”

“…When policymakers choose to sideline science when making decisions, they undermine the pressing need to address disproportionate health outcomes in underserved communities. These communities face cumulative effects from a range of unjust policy decisions (such as job instability, unfair wages, less access to government aid, and inadequate healthcare coverage) that exacerbate the harms and make recovery from them more difficult [ 7 , 14 ]. For some political officials, undermining science is a powerful tactic to shape regulation.…”