title: Methodological considerations in screening for cumulative environmental health impacts: lessons learned from a pilot study in California.
abstract: Polluting facilities and hazardous sites are often concentrated in low-income communities of color already facing additional stressors to their health. The influence of socioeconomic status is not considered in traditional models of risk assessment. We describe a pilot study of a screening method that considers both pollution burden and population characteristics in assessing the potential for cumulative impacts. The goal is to identify communities that warrant further attention and to thereby provide actionable guidance to decision- and policy-makers in achieving environmental justice. The method uses indicators related to five components to develop a relative cumulative impact score for use in comparing communities: exposures, public health effects, environmental effects, sensitive populations and socioeconomic factors. Here, we describe several methodological considerations in combining disparate data sources and report on the results of sensitivity analyses meant to guide future improvements in cumulative impact assessments. We discuss criteria for the selection of appropriate indicators, correlations between them, and consider data quality and the influence of choices regarding model structure. We conclude that the results of this model are largely robust to changes in model structure.
authors.affiliation: Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, California Environmental Protection Agency, 1515 Clay Street, 16th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612, USA. laura.august@oehha.ca.gov
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meehan August
authors.forename: John B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Faust
authors.forename: Lara
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cushing
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zeise
authors.forename: George V
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Alexeeff
mesh_terms: D002140:California; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004782:Environmental Health / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011634:Public Health; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants