The Washington State Environmental Health Disparities Map: Development of a Community-Responsive Cumulative Impacts Assessment Tool

Min, Esther; Gruen, Deric; Banerjee, Dibyendu; Echeverria, Tina; Freelander, Lauren; Schmeltz, Michael T.; Saganić, Erik; Piazza, Millie; Galaviz, Vanessa E; Yost, Michael G.; Seto, Edmund

doi:10.3390/ijerph16224470

Cited by 24 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…There is a growing body of evidence that Georgetown and South Park are burdened with some of the worst health and air pollution disparities in the region [ 51 , 52 , 53 ]. Washington’s Environmental Health Disparities map shows that neighborhoods in the study area have the highest ranks of environmental health disparities, environmental exposures, and PM concentrations in the state [ 54 , 55 ]. These neighborhoods, often referred to as “environmental justice” communities, are mostly within the 98108 ZIP code, where 63.9% of residents are nonwhite, 34.7% are foreign-born, 19.4% live below the poverty level, and less than one third hold a bachelor’s degree or higher [ 56 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent Neighborhoods

Derrien

Zuidema

Jovan

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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This article reports on an interdisciplinary evaluation of the pilot phase of a community-driven civic science project. The project investigates the distribution of heavy metals in air pollution using moss growing on street trees as a bio-indicator in two industrial-adjacent neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington (USA). One goal of the ongoing project is to meaningfully engage local urban youths (eighth to twelfth grade) in the scientific process as civic scientists, and teach them about environmental health, environmental justice, and urban forestry concepts in a place-based, urban-oriented environmental research project. We describe the collaborative context in which our project developed, evaluate the quality of youth-collected data through analysis of replicate samples, and assess participants’ learning, career interests, and overall appraisal of the pilot. Our results indicate that youth scientists collected usable samples (with acceptable precision among repeated samples), learned project content (with statistically significant increases in scores of test-style survey questions; p = 0.002), and appraised their engagement favorably (with 69% of participants reporting they liked the project). We observed few changes in career interests, however. We discuss our intention to use these preliminary insights to further our community-driven education, research, and action model to address environmental injustices.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent Neighborhoods

Derrien

Zuidema

Jovan

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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“…Washington State census tracts are assigned a relative, decile score for each of the 19 indicators based on rank-order of the raw values, as detailed by Min et al [ 29 ]. Census tracts receive a ranking from 1 to 10 in the four listed categories by taking the average decile score of individual indicators.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Washington EHD cumulative impact rankings are not intended to diagnose specific community health issues [ 29 ], additional analysis is needed to identify how COVID-19 disparities are affiliated with unique community-level social and environmental risk factors. This knowledge is critical for suggesting targeted policy interventions to address racial disparities in COVID-19 and at the outset of future epidemics.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These rankings indicate the potential a community has for combined and interactive exposure to environmental hazards and socioeconomic stressors that contribute to environmental health disparities [ 28 ]. Previously used in California and Washington State [ 26 , 29 ], the cumulative impact approach can encourage the incorporation of equity and environmental justice goals into disease prevention response. The fact that existing community-level research has focused on social but not cumulative environmental determinants of COVID-19 may be contributing to why disease control resources are missing vulnerable populations in urban centers around the country [ 19 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cumulative Impacts and COVID-19: Implications for Low-Income, Minoritized, and Health-Compromised Communities in King County, WA

Ingram

Min

Seto

et al. 2021

J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

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Few studies have assessed how the intersection of social determinants of health and environmental hazards contributes to racial disparities in COVID-19. The aim of our study was to compare COVID-19 disparities in testing and positivity to cumulative environmental health impacts, and to assess how unique social and environmental determinants of health relate to COVID-19 positivity in Seattle, King County, WA, at the census tract level. Publicly available data (n = 397 census tracts) were obtained from Public Health–Seattle & King County, 2018 ACS 5-year estimates, and the Washington Tracking Network. COVID-19 testing and positive case rates as of July 12, 2020, were mapped and compared to Washington State Environmental Health Disparities (EHD) Map cumulative impact rankings. We calculated odds ratios from a series of univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses using cumulative impact rankings, and community-level socioeconomic, health, and environmental factors as predictors and having ≥ 10% or < 10% census tract positivity as the binary outcome variable. We found a remarkable overlap between Washington EHD cumulative impact rankings and COVID-19 positivity in King County. Census tracts with ≥ 10 % COVID-19 positivity had significantly lower COVID-19 testing rates and higher proportions of people of color and faced a combination of low socioeconomic status–related outcomes, poor community health outcomes, and significantly higher concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). King County communities experiencing high rates of COVID-19 face a disproportionate cumulative burden of environmental and social inequities. Cumulative environmental health impacts should therefore systematically be considered when assessing for risk of exposure to and health complications resulting from COVID-19.

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“…In this case study, community leaders convened a diverse partnership of public and non-profit organizations, led by residents and including local youth, to co-produce new knowledge addressing environmental justice concerns in the industrial-adjacent Georgetown and South Park neighborhoods in Seattle, WA, USA. Both are disproportionately burdened with poor health outcomes, air quality, and racial inequities, relative to other Seattle neighborhoods (Daniell et al 2013, Gould and Cummings 2013, Min et al 2019, Schulte et al 2015, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2008, Washington State Department of Health 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heavy metals in moss guide environmental justice investigation: a case study using community science in Seattle, WA, USA

Jovan

Zuidema

Derrien

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Heavy metals concentrations often vary at small spatial scales not captured by air monitoring networks, with implications for environmental justice in industrial-adjacent communities. Pollutants measured in moss tissues are commonly used as a screening tool to guide use of more expensive resources, like air monitors. Such studies, however, rarely address environmental justice issues or involve the residents and other decision-makers expected to utilize results. Here, we piloted a community science approach, engaging over 55 people from nine institutions, to map heavy metals using moss in two industrial-adjacent neighborhoods. This area, long known for disproportionately poor air quality, health outcomes, and racial inequities, has only one monitor for heavy metals. Thus, an initial understanding of spatial patterns is critical for gauging whether, where, and how to invest further resources towards investigating heavy metals. Local youth led sampling of the moss Orthotrichum lyellii from trees across a 250×250-m sampling grid (n = 79) and generated data comparable to expert-collected samples (n = 19). We mapped 21 chemical elements measured in moss, including 6 toxic ‘priority’ metals: arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead, and nickel. Compared to other urban O. lyellii studies, local moss had substantially higher priority metals, especially arsenic and chromium, encouraging community members to investigate further. Potential hotspots of priority metals varied somewhat but tended to peak near the central industrial core where many possible emissions sources, including legacy contamination, converge. Informed by these findings, community members successfully advocated regulators for a second study phase – a community-directed air monitoring campaign to evaluate residents’ exposure to heavy metals – as is needed to connect moss results back to the partnership’s core goal of understanding drivers of health disparities. This follow-up campaign will measure metals in the PM10 fraction owing to clues in the current study that airborne soil and dust may be locally important carriers of priority metals. Future work will address how our approach combining bioindicators and community science ultimately affects success addressing longstanding environmental justice concerns. For now, we illustrate the potential to co-create new knowledge, to help catalyze and strategize next steps, in a complex air quality investigation.

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The Washington State Environmental Health Disparities Map: Development of a Community-Responsive Cumulative Impacts Assessment Tool

Cited by 24 publications

References 25 publications

Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent Neighborhoods

Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent Neighborhoods

Cumulative Impacts and COVID-19: Implications for Low-Income, Minoritized, and Health-Compromised Communities in King County, WA

Heavy metals in moss guide environmental justice investigation: a case study using community science in Seattle, WA, USA

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