The Distribution of Pollution: Community Characteristics and Exposure to Air Toxics

Brooks, Nancy A.; Sethi, Rajiv

doi:10.1006/jeem.1996.0967

Cited by 191 publications

(133 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Our findings emphasize the importance of taking into account the toxicity of the waste being emitted by these plants (Ash, and Fetter 2004;Brooks, and Sethi 1997;Neumann et al 1998;Sicotte, and Swanson 2007). Whereas prior work frequently views only the presence of a toxic waste site in a tract, or the raw number of pounds of waste being emitted, differential effects were found when taking into account the relative toxicity of the emitted waste.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

“…One rare study attempting to tease out the causal direction between the placement of toxic sites and the presence of racial/ethnic minorities focused on tracts within the city of Los Angeles over three decades (Pastor et al 2001). This limited literature suggests an important need for further longitudinal studies.Our study addresses the following questions: 1) what is the relative proximity to toxic waste sites for minority groups over a ten year period from 1990 to 2000; 2) do neighborhoods with more highly educated residents experience less proximity to toxic waste sites; and 3) do these effects differ if we take into account the toxicity of the emitted wastes (Ash, and Fetter 2004;Brooks, and Sethi 1997;Neumann, Forman, and Rothlein 1998;Sicotte, and Swanson 2007). Beyond our longitudinal approach, we assess the impact of toxic sites on neighborhood Disproportionate toxicity proximity 6 residents by measuring the pounds of release weighted by a measure of its toxicity, and apportioning this value to a one-mile circle around the site rather than simply attributing it to the census tract in which the site is located (other studies using this approach include Bolin et al 2002;Mohai, and Saha 2006).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social disparities in health: Disproportionate toxicity proximity in minority communities over a decade

Hipp

Lakon

2010

Health & Place

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This study employs latent trajectory models measuring the level of toxic waste over a decade in the cities of six highly populated, ethnically diverse, counties in southern California from 1990-2000 in 3,001 tracts. We find that tracts with 15% more Latinos are exposed to 84.3% more toxic waste than an average tract over this time period and tracts with 15% more Asians are exposed to 33.7% more toxic waste. Conversely, tracts with one standard deviation more residents with at least a bachelor's degree (15.5%) are exposed to 88.8% less toxic waste than an average tract. We also found that these effects were considerably weaker when using the raw pounds of toxic waste rather than the toxicity-weighted measure, suggesting that future research will want to account for the toxicity of the waste.Keywords: environmental justice, neighborhoods, longitudinal, race/ethnicity. (Been 1995;Bolin et al. 2002;Downey 1998;Hite 2000;Hockman, and Morris 1998;Krieg 1995;Mohai, and Saha 2006;Pastor, Sadd, and Hipp 2001). This puts those living in such communities at risk for exposures that may be related to numerous diseases and disabilities.The extensive literature studying possible disproportionate proximity among racial and ethnic minority populations to toxic waste largely employs cross-sectional designs and analyses (Anderton et al. 1994;Baden, and Coursey 2002;Been 1995;Bolin et al. 2002;Downey 1998;Hite 2000;Hockman, and Morris 1998;Krieg 1995;Mohai, and Saha 2006;Pastor, Sadd, and Morello-Frosch 2004;Sadd et al. 1999;Stretesky, and Hogan 1998). Furthermore, this literature focusing on the potential for possible disproportionate proximity to hazardous wastes based on race and socioeconomic status yields mixed findings: whereas several studies suggest a positive relationship between the proportion minority in a neighborhood (i.e., usually measured as tracts, a Census Bureau defined unit of approximately 4,000 persons) and the number of toxic waste Disproportionate toxicity proximity 2 sites (Been 1995;Bolin et al. 2002;Downey 1998;Hite 2000;Hockman, and Morris 1998;Krieg 1995;Mohai, and Saha 2006;Pastor et al. 2001), some studies have not detected such a relationship for African-Americans specifically (Anderton et al. 1994;Baden, and Coursey 2002;Sadd et al. 1999;Stretesky, and Hogan 1998) or minorities more generally (Bowen et al. 1995).Likewise, whereas some studies find a negative relationship between a neighborhood's economic resources and the presence of toxic sites (Bolin et al. 2002;Downey 1998;Hockman, and Morris 1998;Krieg 1995;Mohai, and Saha 2006), others have failed to find such a relationship (Baden, and Coursey 2002;Boer et al. 1997;Davidson, and Anderton 2000).Cross-sectional studies have limited ability to ascertain the causes of such proximity to toxic exposures among minority populations given that they only provide a snapshot of the process (Northridge et al. 2003). Indeed, there are competing viewpoints as to why minorities' disproportionate proximity to toxic sites is frequently observed in cross...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social disparities in health: Disproportionate toxicity proximity in minority communities over a decade

Hipp

Lakon

2010

Health & Place

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“…A number of studies have analyzed the demographic correlates of proximity to toxics storage and disposal facilities (Anderton et al, 1994;Been and Gupta, 1997;Mohai and Saha, 2007;Bullard et al, 2008) or other environmental hazards (Hird and Reese, 1998;Mohai et al, 2009). Other studies have used information on proximity to industrial facilities in the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory, taking into account differences in 2 emissions as well as residential locations (Perlin et al, 1995;Brooks and Sethi, 1997;Arora and Cason, 1999). …”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional variation in environmental inequality: Industrial air toxics exposure in U.S. cities

Zwickl

Ash²,

Boyce

2014

Ecological Economics

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This paper analyzes how racial and ethnic disparities in exposure to industrial air toxics in U.S. cities vary with neighborhood income, and how these disparities vary regionally across the country. Exposure is estimated at the census block-group level using geographic microdata from the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We find that racial and ethnic disparities in pollution exposure are strongest among neighborhoods with median incomes below $25,000, while income-based disparities are stronger among neighborhoods with median incomes above that level. We also find considerable differences in the patterns of disparity across the ten EPA regions. In the two regions with the highest median exposure (the Midwest and South Central regions), for example, African-Americans and Hispanics face significantly higher exposures than whites, whereas in the region with the next highest exposure (the Mid-Atlantic), the reverse is true. We show that the latter result is attributable to intercity variationsminorities tend to live in the less polluted cities in the region -rather than to within-city variations.

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“…Consistent with the latter, Grant (1997) found smaller relative reductions of TRI discharges over time in states with higher fractions of non-white residents. Similarly, Brooks and Sethi (1997) found that communities with a higher proportion of black residents, lower voter turnouts, and lower housing values were more likely to experience increases in exposure to TRI pollutants from 1990 to 1992. Although Shapiro (1999) did not find comparable racial effects, he reports that wealthy communities have achieved greater reduction of TRI pollutants than their poorer neighbours.…”

Section: Community and Interest Group Pressuresmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Various scholars have reported that communities that experience greater exposure to toxic wastes tend to be less educated, home to a higher proportion of African Americans, and poorer, though many authors report a quadratic relationship with income, reflecting tensions between the local wealth generated by polluting facilities and the antipathy of wealthy communities to pollution (Brooks and Sethi (1997), Ringquist (1997), Terry andYandle (1997)). These cross-sectional studies indicate that local pressures have influenced polluting behaviour for some time.…”

Section: Community and Interest Group Pressuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incentives for pollution abatement: Regulation, regulatory threats, and non‐governmental pressures

Harrison

Antweiler

2003

J Policy Anal Manage

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In the last decade, voluntary efforts by firms to reduce their environmental impacts have received increasing attention from both policymakers and scholars. In this article, we consider polluters' incentives to reduce their releases. In particular, using data from Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory, we examine the impacts of conventional regulation, threats of regulation, and non-governmental pressures facilitated by public dissemination of information about pollutant releases. We find that the vast majority of reductions reported to the inventory to date were not voluntary, as has often been assumed, but are, rather, the result of direct regulation of a relatively small number of polluters. We find strong effects of federal regulation among other sources as well, with much weaker responses to the mere threat of regulation. However, we raise concerns about growth of less visible waste streams, such as land disposal and underground injection, as well as transfers of wastes to other communities. Finally, we report evidence that some waste streams are increasing in toxicity, an effect that may outweigh the benefits of reductions in releases.

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The Distribution of Pollution: Community Characteristics and Exposure to Air Toxics

Cited by 191 publications

References 12 publications

Social disparities in health: Disproportionate toxicity proximity in minority communities over a decade

Social disparities in health: Disproportionate toxicity proximity in minority communities over a decade

Regional variation in environmental inequality: Industrial air toxics exposure in U.S. cities

Incentives for pollution abatement: Regulation, regulatory threats, and non‐governmental pressures

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