title: Disaggregating data on Asian American and Pacific Islander women to provide new insights on potential exposures to hazardous air pollutants in California.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) population is heterogeneous and rapidly growing in the United States, with a high proportion concentrated in California. Although traditionally assumed to have lower rates of breast cancer than non-Hispanic white women, recent studies have suggested considerable variation in incidence by AAPI ethnic group, with rates in some exceeding those in non-Hispanic whites. The potential role of environmental toxicants has not been well explored and may provide insights into these patterns.
  
  
  METHODS
  We created an exposure potential index (EPI) score for 24 hazardous air pollutants modeled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment considered to be mammary gland carcinogens, and compared values at the census tract level for "geographically concentrated" AAPI groups throughout the State. "Geographically concentrated" populations were defined as census tracts with at least 100 individuals from a specified racial/ethnic population as enumerated by the 2000 Census.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although EPI scores differed little between census tracts with aggregated AAPI (mean EPI = 0.53) and non-Hispanic white women (mean EPI = 0.63), there was substantial variation between tracts for disaggregated AAPI groups, with notably higher EPI scores for tracts enumerated for Korean or Japanese women (mean EPI of 0.78 and 0.77, respectively) compared with other AAPI groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings underscore the importance of disaggregating data for the heterogeneous AAPI population to identify differences in potential environmental exposures across groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Future cancer etiology studies should examine environmental exposure differences within and across groups for the diverse AAPI population.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Berkeley, California. Department of Health Research and Policy, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California. thu.quach@cpic.org.
authors.forename: Thu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Quach
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Berkeley, California.
authors.forename: Ruiling
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Berkeley, California. Department of Health Research and Policy, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
authors.forename: David O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Berkeley, California.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hurley
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Berkeley, California.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Von Behren
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Berkeley, California.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hertz
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Berkeley, California. Department of Health Research and Policy, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
authors.forename: Peggy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reynolds
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants; D001210:Asia, Southeastern / Q000208:ethnology; D001213:Asian / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000209:etiology; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D002274:Carcinogens, Environmental; D019352:Censuses; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005202:Asia, Eastern / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D044468:Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013223:Statistics as Topic
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D002274:Carcinogens, Environmental