Social disparities in health: disproportionate toxicity proximity in minority communities over a decade.
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 to 2000 in 3001 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.
Hipp
John R
JR
Department of Criminology, Law and Society in the School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. john.hipp@UCI.edu
Lakon
Cynthia M
CM
D001213:Asian / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002140:California; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004522:Educational Status; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D016014:Linear Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015233:Models, Statistical; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D011156:Population Density; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D015386:Hazardous Substances