Collaborative Research: Correlates and Consequences of Risks from Airborne Toxics: A Dynamic Spatial Analysis

University Of Southern California, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

SES-1060891 Paul Mohai University of Michigan Ann Arbor SES-1060882 Manuel Pastor University of Southern California SES-1060904 James Boyce Michael Ash University of Massachusetts-Amherst In the past two decades there has been increasing interest in understanding the extent and causes of racial and socioeconomic inequalities in the distribution of environmental burdens. This interest has been spurred by a visible and growing environmental justice movement, by public concerns about the health and other quality of life consequences of pollution, and by increasing government attention to these issues. This study analyzes the geographic distribution of airborne industrial toxic pollution in the United States over time to address several questions: (i) Have rates of reduction in air pollution risk over time differed between low-income and predominantly minority communities and other communities? (ii) How does the interaction between income and race/ethnicity as correlates of exposure to point-source air toxics vary across regions and across industrial sectors? (iii) How does individual mobility affect racial and socioeconomic disparities in cumulative exposure: who moves, who stays, and do those who move relocate to more or less polluted localities? The study uses a unique dataset from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Risk Screening Environmental Indicators Geographic Microdata (RSEI-GM). The data offer a fine-grained picture of exposure to industrial toxic air releases identified by chemical and source facility for the entire U.S. for the years 1988-2007. The study will merge the RSEI-GM data with tract-level socioeconomic and demographic data from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses and the 2004-2009 pooled American Community Survey as well as individual-level data from the 1986-2001 Americans Changing Lives Survey. Broader Impacts This project will establish an infrastructure for the development, maintenance, and sharing of the complex RSEI-GM pollution-exposure database, spatially merging it with social, economic, demographic, and health data, and training graduate students in the management and use of the data. The project will make analytic results available in useful format to public and private decision-makers, including communities, regulators, shareholders, and other stakeholders.