Acute exposure to extremely hazardous substances: an analysis of environmental equity.
Although environmental equity research has focused primarily on chronic pollution sources, recent advances in environmental modeling and geographic information systems (GIS) provide a foundation for developing measures that can be used to evaluate differential exposure to acute pollution events. This article describes a methodology that uses facility-specific information to develop a risk surface representing the spatial distribution of accidental exposure to hazardous substances in a study area. Environmental pollution models recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were used in conjunction with GIS software to achieve this objective. The methodology was implemented in a large metropolitan region (Hillsborough County, Florida) to examine disproportionate exposure to worst-case releases of extremely hazardous substances. The environmental inequity hypothesis was investigated by directly comparing the distribution of potential exposures within each racial (non-White versus White) and income (below poverty versus above poverty) subgroup. The results indicate that a significantly large proportion of both non-White and impoverished individuals resided in areas potentially exposed to multiple accidental releases.
Chakraborty
J
J
Department of Geography, College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Florida, Tampa 33620, USA. jchakrab@chuma1.cas.usf.edu
D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005006:Ethnicity; D005431:Florida; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000633:toxicity*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011203:Poverty; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D014484:United States Environmental Protection Agency
D015386:Hazardous Substances