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The relationship between socio-economic indicators and air pollution in England and Wales: Implications for environmental justice
Abstract
This paper investigates the distribution of three common air pollutants, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and fine particulates
(PM10), in England and Wales with respect to social class, ethnicity and population density. A multilevel model is used to demonstrate
regional differences in the social distribution of pollution. The results show that, allowing for ethnicity and population
density, there are different relationships between socio-economic status and exposure to air pollution within different regions
in England and Wales. These differences suggest that national legislation introduced to reduce air pollution levels may give
rise to environmental injustice, with geographical and social differences in the costs and benefits arising to the population
due to such legislation.
... The first British studies found that the largest factories and most carcinogenic industrial emissions in the UK are located in the most deprived areas (FoE 1999, Walker and Bickerstaff 2000, Pennycook et al. 2001, Brainard et al. 2002, Agyeman and Evans 2004. The poorest populations also live in areas with the worst air pollution (Mitchell and Dorling 2003) and the relationship between minority ethnic groups and pollution is significant even after controlling for deprivation (McLeod et al. 2000). ...
... The existing European studies that describe environmental injustice do not investigate causal processes, except for Coenen and Halfacre 2003. Most have focused on class and income differentials, except for Laurian (2008a) and McLeod et al. (2000) who also considered immigration and ethnicity, respectively. While environmental 'racism' has not been demonstrated in Western Europe, explicit environmental discrimination against Roma populations in Eastern Europe shows that it is not a uniquely American phenomenon (Lada´nyi and Szelenyi 2005, Steger 2007, Harper et al. 2009). ...
... First, it avoids the 'dilution' effect of regional scales. Second, small areas best approximate risk exposures (McLeod et al. 2000, Bowen 2002, Mitchell and Dorling 2003. Third, headed by a mayor and council, the communes, or towns, used in this analysis are the smallest units of government in France. ...
The concept of Environmental Justice (EJ) refers to social inequities in the distribution of environmental risks. This paper presents the first European spatio-temporal EJ analysis, focusing on the location of 107 waste incinerators in France since the 1960s to assess potential biases in siting decisions. It uses a spatial econometric analysis that accounts for vulnerable populations at the time unwanted land uses were sited. We find that, after controlling for a town's socio-economic characteristics and the opportunity costs represented by the demand of its neighbours, each additional 1% of a town's population that is foreign-born increased the odds that the town received an incinerator by 29%. Disproportionate siting near concentrations of immigrants thus generates environmental injustice in France.
... A limited number of studies have addressed environmental inequality, using various study designs and methodologies and often reaching contradictory results (Fecht et al., 2015;Hajat et al., 2015;King and Steadman, 2000;McLeod et al., 2000;Temam et al., 2017;Wheeler 2005). The few studies in Europe that explored socio-economic determinants of environmental exposures showed that the association depends on the city, but also the geographical scale of the analysis and differs across cities and countries. ...
... The few studies in Europe that explored socio-economic determinants of environmental exposures showed that the association depends on the city, but also the geographical scale of the analysis and differs across cities and countries. (Fecht et al., 2015;King and Steadman, 2000;McLeod et al., 2000;Temam et al., 2017;Wheeler 2005). Studies conducted in the U.K. used the deprivation index as a socioeconomic strata (SES) indicator and reported that in urban areas the more socioeconomically deprived certain population groups are, the more exposed they are to environmental stressors, e.g. to air pollution (Fecht et al., 2015;King and Steadman, 2000;Wheeler 2005), although the association was inverse in rural areas (Wheeler 2005) or Glasgow (King and Steadman, 2000). ...
... A limited number of studies have addressed environmental inequality, using various study designs and methodologies and often reaching contradictory results (Fecht et al., 2015;Hajat et al., 2015;King and Steadman, 2000;McLeod et al., 2000;Temam et al., 2017;Wheeler 2005). The few studies in Europe that explored socio-economic determinants of environmental exposures showed that the association depends on the city, but also the geographical scale of the analysis and differs across cities and countries. ...
... The few studies in Europe that explored socio-economic determinants of environmental exposures showed that the association depends on the city, but also the geographical scale of the analysis and differs across cities and countries. (Fecht et al., 2015;King and Steadman, 2000;McLeod et al., 2000;Temam et al., 2017;Wheeler 2005). Studies conducted in the U.K. used the deprivation index as a socioeconomic strata (SES) indicator and reported that in urban areas the more socioeconomically deprived certain population groups are, the more exposed they are to environmental stressors, e.g. to air pollution (Fecht et al., 2015;King and Steadman, 2000;Wheeler 2005), although the association was inverse in rural areas (Wheeler 2005) or Glasgow (King and Steadman, 2000). ...
A limited number of studies have addressed environmental inequality, using various study designs and methodologies and often reaching contradictory results. Following a standardized multi-city data collection process within the European project EURO-HEALTHY, we conducted an ecological study to investigate the spatial association between nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), as a surrogate for traffic related air pollution, and ten socioeconomic indicators at local administrative unit level in nine European Metropolitan Areas. We applied mixed models for the associations under investigation with random intercepts per Metropolitan Area, also accounting for the spatial correlation. The stronger associations were observed between NO 2 levels and population density, population born outside the European Union (EU28), total crimes per 100,000 inhabitants and unemployment rate that displayed a highly statistically significant trend of increasing concentrations with increasing levels of the indicators. Specifically, the highest vs the lowest quartile of each indicator above was associated with 48.7% (95% confidence interval (CI): 42.9%, 54.8%), 30.9% (95%CI: 22.1%, 40.2%), 19.8% (95%CI: 13.4%, 26.6%) and 15.8% (95%CI: 9.9%, 22.1%) increase in NO 2 respectively. The association with population density most probably reflects the higher volume in vehicular traffic, which is the main source of NO 2 in urban areas. Higher pollution levels in areas with higher percentages of people born outside EU28, crime or unemployment rates indicate that worse air quality is typically encountered in deprived European urban areas. Policy makers should consider spatial environmental inequalities to better inform actions aiming to lower urban air pollution levels that will subsequently lead to improved quality of life, public health and health equity across the population.
... [33][34][35][36][37][38] However, the situation in Europe appears to be less straightforward; findings from studies across Europe have generated mixed results. [39][40][41][42][43][44][45] In the UK, Walker et al. previously reported findings that are consistent with those of this study, that both 'most' and 'least' deprived areas were disproportionately affected by high NO 2 concentrations. 42 A number of possible explanations for these inconclusive research findings have been offered; all relating to characteristics of urbanized areas. ...
... For example, a study comparing local, regional and national-level associations between air pollution and socio-economic factors in England and the Netherlands suggested that more-deprived areas are often in close proximity to mixed/high-traffic roads. 23 A study exploring the same relationships (at Local Authority level) in England and Wales explained that areas of mixed deprivation are often adjacently-located in urban areas, 43 which may be the result of city gentrification and land-use planning decisions. 23 Lastly, although beyond the UK context, a study that examined the environmental inequity of traffic-related air pollution in Toronto, Canada, proposed those living in 'least deprived' urban areas tolerate more pollution in lieu of living, social and employment benefits. ...
Background:
Air pollution exposure reduces life expectancy. Air pollution, deprivation and poor-health status combinations can create increased and disproportionate disease burdens. Problems and solutions are rarely considered in a broad public health context, but doing so can add value to air quality management efforts by reducing air pollution risks, impacts and inequalities.
Methods:
An ecological study assessed small-area associations between air pollution (nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter), deprivation status and health outcomes in Wales, UK.
Results:
Air pollution concentrations were highest in 'most' deprived areas. When considered separately, deprivation-health associations were stronger than air pollution-health associations. Considered simultaneously, air pollution added to deprivation-health associations; interactions between air pollution and deprivation modified and strengthened associations with all-cause and respiratory disease mortality, especially in 'most' deprived areas where most-vulnerable people lived and where health needs were greatest.
Conclusion:
There is a need to reduce air pollution-related risks for all. However, it is also the case that greater health gains can result from considering local air pollution problems and solutions in the context of wider health-determinants and acting on a better understanding of relationships. Informed and co-ordinated air pollution mitigation and public health action in high deprivation and pollution areas can reduce risks and inequalities. To achieve this, greater public health integration and collaboration in local air quality management policy and practice is needed.
... Some pollution data occur naturally in a cluster structure. 57 Individuals from the same geographical areas or social units such as schools or workplaces are likely to be more similar in terms of their social characteristics than those who were sampled independently from the general population. 58 A conventional multivariate regression model assumes the independence of observations, which underestimates the standard errors of regression coefficients and therefore overestimates statistical significance when used to analyze hierarchical data. ...
... To date, 2 studies have applied multilevel models to investigate the relationships between ambient pollutants (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and fine particulates) or traffic-related noise and SES/ethnicity. 39,57 These models provided narrow confidence intervals and observed problems of collinearity between random and fixed variables. 39 In the future, new biostatistical models must be developed to resolve these issues. ...
Abstract Objective: To review environmental equity research on outdoor air pollution, and specifically methods and tools used in research published in English, with the aim of recommending the best methods and analytic tools. Methods: English language publications from 2000-2012 were identified in Google Scholar, Ovid Medline and PubMed. Research methodologies and results were reviewed, and potential deficiencies and knowledge gaps identified. Results: Exposure to outdoor air pollution differs by social factors, but findings are inconsistent in Canada. In terms of study designs, most were small and ecological, and therefore prone to the ecological fallacy. Newer tools such as geographic information systems, modeling and biomarkers offer improved precision in exposure measurement. Conclusion: Higher quality research using large, individual-based samples and more precise analytic tools are needed to provide better evidence for policy-making to reduce environmental inequities.
... The last theme, "Place" is about some acts, programme and policies that will reduce air pollution generated by traffic and transportation on public places. Around the air quality and the Clean Air Plan for Wales, some scholars have studied that the relationship between social deprivation area and level of air pollution and analysis the correlation or causation of the relationship, and they find out that there is a strong positive correlation between air pollution concentrations and deprived areas, which means the highest concentration of air pollution in most deprived area [1][2][3][4][5]. ...
The main idea of this paper is to make a comprehensive evaluation of the Clean Air Plan for Wales, a newly introduced air pollution policy in recent years, and give countermeasures. This article starts from four different themes which are People, Environment, Properity, and Place and studies different measures and solutions under each topic. The People is to raise awareness of air pollution among local residents and develop different policies to better monitor and control air pollution and emissions. The Environment is to formulate some policies to overcome the negative influences that bring by air pollution on biodiversity and ecosystems and create a more resilience and ecological natural environment. The Properity is primiraly about the regulating businesses and industries to reduce carbon and other pollutant emission. The last theme, Place is about some acts, programme and policies that will reduce air pollution generated by traffic and transportation on public places. Finally, the paper analyses that the plan is successful on the whole. However, due to the impact of the budget, COVID-19, and policies, some plans have been delayed, but the article gives suggestions on how to plan and study air pollution more effectively in the future. The whole article makes it easier and intuitive for people to understand the measures in the Clean Air Plan for Wales and what the government has done for air pollution. In addition, the suggestions put forward in the article can also provide some reference and reflection value for policy makers.
... [37][38][39][40][41] European Union findings are, however, more variable and are often explained by characteristics of urban areas. [34][35][36][42][43][44][45] Bailey et al. 46 described 'location trade-offs' combined with individual awareness of AP and understanding of its impacts, explaining that some areas are more desirable than others (living, social and employment benefits), resulting in areas of mixed deprivation and higher AP. ...
Background
Outdoor air pollution is the largest environmental risk to health. Air pollution, deprivation and poor health status are inextricably linked; highlighting issues of environmental injustice, social and health inequalities.
Methods
Air pollution (nitrogen dioxide, NO2 and fine particulate matter, PM2.5), population and deprivation data were identified at Lower Super Output Area level in Wales, UK, for 2012–18. Air pollution data were categorized according to different air pollution concentrations. Population and deprivation data were considered simultaneously to describe population vulnerabilities, susceptibilities and inequalities. Simple statistical analyses were performed using a difference in proportions method with 95% confidence intervals.
Results
Over time, the majority of Welsh people transitioned to living in areas of lower NO2 and PM2.5 pollution. Areas of worse air pollution comprised more young people than people aged 65+; both populations are known to be susceptible to air pollution exposure. By 2018, significant socioeconomic inequality gaps were found where ‘most deprived’ population groups for both pollutants experienced greater disadvantage.
Conclusion
Air quality in Wales is improving. However, local-level variations in exposure risk still exist. System-wide action must ensure that air quality improvement-related benefits are equitable and acknowledge current evidence about the harms that even low levels of air pollution can have on health.
... As we discussed in our review , the decisions of individuals who adhere to these public health measures depend very much on social position, such as occupation, income, family size and responsibilities, and other factors. Many people will need to continue to work, either because their employer requires it or because they cannot afford not to, and this will vary by area of the country (Barnes et al. 2019;Fecht et al. 2015;McLeod et al. 2000). As well, people want to get back to the activities of daily normal living and there is much wishful thinking, so many are ignoring the messages about risk provided by government and public health officials. ...
... 4 En effet, le courant de recherche portant sur les inégalités environnementales, particulièrement travaillé en France, met en avant le primat de l'analyse territoriale des risques d'exposition et des accès aux aménités sur la proclamation de droits à un environnement sain, et une conception fondée sur les valeurs de l'environnement (Blanchon et al., 2009). Ont été ainsi travaillées les vulnérabilités sociales face al 'environnement (Fairburn, 2008), ainsi qu'aux disparités d'expositions et de multiexpositions (Lucas et al., 2004), face à certains facteurs environnementaux en particulier tels que les pollutions industrielles locales (Roussel, 2002 ;Charles et al. 2010) ou la qualité de l'air (McLeod et al., 2000 ;Brainard et al., 2002). Plus récemment, des travaux de l'Institut d'Aménagement et d'Urbanisme d'Île-de-France ont montré S'engager pour l'environnement dans le Grand Paris : territoires, politiques ... ...
L’environnementalisme citoyen dans les grandes métropoles des Nord prend place dans des territoires en constante transformation, caractérisés par des paysages, des populations et des tendances politiques diversifiés. Dans cet article, nous défendons que la différenciation sociospatiale et, plus spécifiquement, les inégalités territoriales qui traversent les territoires métropolitains constituent un facteur décisif et pourtant souvent négligé par les études sur les mouvements sociaux environnementaux. À partir d’une enquête menée sur les associations environnementales agissant dans le Grand Paris, articulant une série de données quantitatives et géospatialisées sur le profil de 131 communes et une série de données qualitatives portant sur 52 associations et collectifs, nous montrons comment le profil paysager, socio-économique et politique interagit avec l’environnementalisme citoyen à l’échelle municipale. Nos résultats, discutés ici, indiquent que les modalités et schèmes d’action des associations environnementales sont partiellement, mais significativement, orientés par les inégalités territoriales métropolitaines.
... 4 En effet, le courant de recherche portant sur les inégalités environnementales, particulièrement travaillé en France, met en avant le primat de l'analyse territoriale des risques d'exposition et des accès aux aménités sur la proclamation de droits à un environnement sain, et une conception fondée sur les valeurs de l'environnement (Blanchon et al., 2009). Ont été ainsi travaillées les vulnérabilités sociales face al 'environnement (Fairburn, 2008), ainsi qu'aux disparités d'expositions et de multiexpositions (Lucas et al., 2004), face à certains facteurs environnementaux en particulier tels que les pollutions industrielles locales (Roussel, 2002 ;Charles et al. 2010) ou la qualité de l'air (McLeod et al., 2000 ;Brainard et al., 2002). Plus récemment, des travaux de l'Institut d'Aménagement et d'Urbanisme d'Île-de-France ont montré S'engager pour l'environnement dans le Grand Paris : territoires, politiques ... Cybergeo : European Journal of Geography , Espace, Société, Territoire que 8 % du territoire francilien est exposé à, au moins, deux types de nuisances et pollutions (Gueymard, Laruelle, 2017). ...
Civic environmentalism in the large northern metropolises takes place in constantly changing territories, characterized by diverse landscapes, populations and political tendencies. In this article, we argue that sociospatial differentiation, and more specifically territorial inequalities, across metropolitan territories is a decisive yet often neglected factor by studies on environmental social movements. Based on a survey of environmental community supported organizations (CSO) operating in the Greater Paris Area, articulating a series of quantitative and geospatial data on the profile of 131 municipalities and a series of qualitative data on 52 CSO, we show how the landscape, socio-economic and political profile interacts with civic environmentalism at the municipal level. Our results, discussed here, indicate that the modalities and patterns of action of environmental CSO are partly but meaningfully driven by metropolitan territorial inequalities.
... Early reports of differential impacts of environmental pollution emerged in the US in the mid-1980s, paving the way for what would become the environmental justice movement and literature (e.g., US GAO 1983, UCCRJ 1987. Research, using increasing analytical sophistication, found plentiful international evidence that minorities are disproportionately impacted by toxic facilities (e.g., Bullard 1990, 1994, Bryant and Mohai 1992, Mennis 2003, Laurian 2008a,b, Agyeman et al. 2016; air pollution (e.g., Mitchell and Dorling 2003, Morello-Frosch, Pastor, and Sadd 2001, McLeod et al 2000; transportation projects (e.g., Chakraborty 2006, Deka 2004; differences in environmental law enforcement (e.g., Mennis 2005); natural disasters and related risks; and the benefits provided by environmental goods, such as urban green spaces (Wolch, Byrne, and Newell 2014, Anguelovski 2016. ...
This article explores the possibility that pairing desirable community amenities with polluting, industrial, or otherwise unwanted sites, such as waste incinerators, may have the potential to mitigate, or even compensate for, some of their negative local impacts. The environmental justice literature shows that polluting sites tend to disproportionately affect low income and disenfranchised communities. Could this be reversed or mitigated by linking positive amenities to polluting sites? The South Korean experiment of building community amenities (recreation centers, pools, gyms, etc.) at waste incinerators may provide answers to this intriguing question. Using the Difference-in-Differences design we found that while incinerators without amenities have substantial negative impacts on local land and real estate markets, we did not observe any such impact in areas with incinerators that have amenity features. Thus, the amenity features of the incinerators (along with enhanced regulatory emissions standards) are mitigating the negative economic impacts of incinerators.
... D'autres indicateurs représentant des concentrations de contaminants mesurées dans les différents compartiments air, eau, sol ont été largement utilisés [18,19]. Le compartiment atmosphérique est celui qui est le plus souvent considéré notamment en épidémiologie environnementale [20,21]. ...
Un système d’information de surveillance en santé-environnement (SISSE) peut être soit un dispositif à visée d’étude pour fournir des données utiles à la priorisation d’actions de prévention, soit un dispositif d’alerte. Différentes démarches ont été développées au niveau international, avec des niveaux de maturité variables, pour fournir des systèmes d’information nécessitant une mise en cohérence de la production de données par rapport aux objectifs de surveillance et permettre ainsi leur opérationnalité dans un cadre de gestion. Cette synthèse propose d’explorer les systèmes intégrés de surveillance à travers la description d’expériences internationales. L’accès à l’information et la participation du public au processus décisionnel en matière d’environnement coïncident avec le début de la prise en compte du débat scientifique et démocratique sur la justice environnementale et sur l’articulation entre politiques sociales et politiques environnementales. Les premiers SISSE apparaissent dans ce contexte dans les années 2000 aux États-Unis et permettent l’accès et la capacité d’intégrer des données ou bases de données aux différents niveaux administratifs, de promouvoir l’interopérabilité des systèmes, d’améliorer la qualité des données produites et une meilleure intégration de la dimension environnementale dans l’ensemble des politiques. D’autres outils interactifs en ligne permettent aux utilisateurs une information facilitée pour explorer diverses dimensions de l’exposition au niveau local. Toutefois, les données spatiales utilisées à des fins de caractérisation des expositions environnementales n’ont pas toujours été initialement collationnées pour répondre à ces objectifs, ce qui entraîne des biais d’utilisation. Pour contourner partiellement ces problèmes, différentes techniques sont adoptées pour traiter spécifiquement les différentes bases de données environnementales, comportementales ou de population. Dans le contexte de l’émergence de la notion d’exposome, la territorialisation du concept à des fins de gestion nécessite le développement de nouvelles approches dynamiques, multidimensionnelles, longitudinales et la mise en place de systèmes d’information, obligeant l’adoption de méthodes transdisciplinaires pour l’analyse des données et la coordination des acteurs sur l’ensemble des niveaux administratifs.
... Several control variables are included in the models to isolate the rela- Population Density is also controlled for, as there is reason to suspect that this factor is closely linked to various types of pollution (Lim et al., 2015;McLeod et al., 2000;Raupach, Rayner, & Paget, 2010). ...
Over the past decade, China has become one of the largest trading partners to countries of Latin America and Sub‐Saharan Africa. A major concern is environmental degradation: much of this trade is composed of pollution‐intensive raw materials and Chinese traders do not promote the adoption of stringent environmental policies among trade partners, as the United States and the European Union do. The probable outcome for China's trade partners is a race to the bottom, whereby trade‐based competitive pressures lead governments to systematically weaken environmental regulations. However, this outcome may be moderated by good governance, as willing and able governments react to heightened pollution‐intensive trade with China by strengthening policies. This study considers whether sound governing institutions offset the harmful effects of trade with China on environmental policy outcomes, using a dataset covering 58 Latin American and Sub‐Saharan African countries over 10 years (2001–2010). Tests focus on the moderating effects of two facets of good governance: representativeness and bureaucratic capacity. The results demonstrate that trade with China does generate a race to the bottom in the environmental policies of partner countries. This effect is moderated by bureaucratic capacity, but not by representativeness.
... SD is typically characterized by indicators such as the proportion of population with low-income, low-education, non-professional occupation and non-owner occupier (Townsend, 1987). Air-pollution related EI is evident among the socially deprived in Western countries (Bowen et al., 1995;Buzzelli et al., 2003;Grineski et al., 2007;McLeod et al., 2000;Pearce et al., 2006). Further, studies in estimating pollution exposure have deployed various estimation methodologies, but are of high computational complexity (Jerrett et al., 2005) (see Section 1 of the Supplementary Document for details), with exposure readings limited to small geographical areas. ...
Poor air quality has extremely detrimental health consequences, including cancer, stroke, asthma or heart disease. Existing research on air pollution-induced environmental injustice (EI) in Hong Kong (HK) is based on sparse air pollution data due to the limited number of pollution monitoring stations, rendering the study of the relationship between air pollution exposure and social deprivation (SD), and the subsequent study of EI at finer geographical scales difficult. A key research question remains to be explored in a methodologically rigorous manner: Are the socially deprived exposed to a higher level of PM2.5 pollution in HK? Our study develops a Granger Causality model, utilizing ubiquitous urban dynamics closely related with air pollution, including ambient pollutants concentration, traffic, meteorology and urban morphology to provide a fine-grained estimation of air pollution in HK at 100 m × 100 m spatial resolution, achieving a 82% accuracy. We focus specifically on ambient PM2.5 concentration, given its serious health consequences and the preliminary evidence of differential PM2.5 distribution across different socio-economic groups in HK. We investigate if there is any differential distribution in PM2.5 pollution across people residing in constituency areas (CAs) with different levels of SD. In our study, SD is measured by the Social Deprivation Index (SDI), which is a composite indicator comprising four socio-economic status variables, namely, low-income, low-education, non-professional occupation, and non-owner occupier, selected and combined via principal component analysis. We conclude there is a statistically significant, positive relationship between ambient PM2.5 concentration and SDI in HK, based on the SDI and mean PM2.5 exposure values derived from 412 CAs (R² = 1.4%, p-value <0.01, based on ordinary least squares), justifying the existence of PM2.5-induced SD and EI at the CA level in HK. Our study highlights an emerging need for HK to develop more integrated, human-centric, location- and justice-based environmental policies, and the need to adopt evidence-based policy-decision-making to properly address air pollution-induced EI. Our policy implications and recommendations can be extended to the rest of the world, particularly the Asian metropolis, as well as places where GDP growth is rapid, population density and pollution concentration (including particulate pollution) appear to be high, and the income gap between the rich and the poor is widening.
... Así, los hogares ingleses y galeses con ingresos por debajo de 5000 libras tenían una probabilidad dos veces mayor de vivir cerca de una fábrica contaminante que aquellos hogares con ingresos superiores a 6000 libras; más del 60 % de las instalaciones industriales más contaminantes, tanto de Inglaterra como de Gales, se encontraban localizadas en áreas donde los ingresos familiares promedio eran menores de 5000 libras; también se señala en este informe cómo más del 99 % de las fábricas más contaminantes de Londres estaban situadas en zonas donde las comunidades tenían ingresos menores a la media. A este informe le siguieron inmediatamente un conjunto de estudios que mostraron patrones similares en sus conclusiones (McLeod et al., 2000;Pennycook et al., 2001Brainard et al., 2002. ...
The backbone of the concept of sustainable development is supported on the alliance formed by the economy, social justice and environmental protection. However, this concept has been based since its origins primarily on its environmental and economic position, to the detriment of its social dimension.The question that thus arises is: Is the social perspective and specifically the environmental justice and equity of sustainability the most overlooked? This article will explain the reasons why the social dimension, is considered crucial to the concept of sustainable development. When this social dimension has been considered, very promising concepts have been relevant to this debate: environmental justice, environmental space, ecological footprint and ecological debt, all contributing to the deepening of the paradigm of Just Sustainability.
... Socioeconomic variations in exposure to ambient particulate air pollution in the UK have been described in a number of settings [46][47][48][49][50], including the longitudinal studies examined the socioeconomic distribution of the air quality improvement over the last decade [51,52]. ...
Background:
Socioeconomically disadvantaged populations often have higher exposures to particulate air pollution, which can be expected to contribute to differentials in life expectancy. We examined socioeconomic differentials in exposure and air pollution-related mortality relating to larger scale (5 km resolution) variations in background concentrations of selected pollutants across England.
Methods:
Ozone and particulate matter (sub-divided into PM10, PM2.5, PM2.5-10, primary, nitrate and sulphate PM2.5) were simulated at 5 km horizontal resolution using an atmospheric chemistry transport model (EMEP4UK). Annual mean concentrations of these pollutants were assigned to all 1,202,578 residential postcodes in England, which were classified by urban-rural status and socioeconomic deprivation based on the income and employment domains of the 2010 English Index of Multiple Deprivation for the Lower-level Super Output Area of residence. We used life table methods to estimate PM2.5-attributable life years (LYs) lost in both relative and absolute terms.
Results:
Concentrations of the most particulate fractions, but not of nitrate PM2.5 or ozone, were modestly higher in areas of greater socioeconomic deprivation. Relationships between pollution level and socioeconomic deprivation were non-linear and varied by urban-rural status. The pattern of PM2.5 concentrations made only a small contribution to the steep socioeconomic gradient in LYs lost due to PM2.5 per 103 population, which primarily was driven by the steep socioeconomic gradient in underlying mortality rates. In rural areas, the absolute burden of air pollution-related LYs lost was lowest in the most deprived deciles.
Conclusions:
Air pollution shows modest socioeconomic patterning at 5 km resolution in England, but absolute attributable mortality burdens are strongly related to area-level deprivation because of underlying mortality rates. Measures that cause a general reduction in background concentrations of air pollution may modestly help narrow socioeconomic differences in health.
... Perlin et al (1995) in the USA and Jerrett et al (1996) in Canada reported positive relationships between income and pollutant emissions. Similarly, McLeod et al (2000) observed that densely populated urban areas in the United Kingdom with the highest air pollutant levels also tended to contain predominantly wealthy populations. Morello-Frosch et al (2001) undertook a multivariate analysis that verified the joint importance of both income and racial factors in calculated cancer risks. ...
... It is worth highlighting that race and ethnicity has been largely linked to environmental inequities in published work in the English-speaking world, so a few relevant case studies will be cited here by way of illustration. McLeod et al. (2000) reported a positive relationship between minority ethnic groups and pollution in England and Wales. Brainard et al. (2002) found a striking relationship between modelled emissions and poverty indicators and ethnicity in the English city of Birmingham. ...
The concept of environmental justice (EJ) has recently gained currency, both as a factor for and a goal of sustainable development. Its implementation in practice implies establishing current environmental injustice patterns and analysing planning policies, with the aim to reduce socio-demographic inequalities in the negative environmental impact borne by different population groups. This paper proposes a method to assess differential exposure to excessive pollution levels by socio-demographic groups in intra-urban spaces.
The approach developed in this paper is based upon GIS and quantitative spatial analysis techniques. It incorporates the idea of an ‘environmental justice weighting scale’ for policy-making, using normative pollution thresholds to measure inequalities more objectively and consistently. Spain’s two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, have been chosen as case-studies, taking nitrogen dioxide as the pollutant, and the geographic distribution of six vulnerable population groups (children, elderly people and international immigrants) in the year 2010. The results reveal that a large part of these groups suffer exposure to air pollution exceeding the maximum permitted levels disproportionately, which would imply a case of environmental injustice.
... or example, the landmark United Church of Christ study (UCC 1987) concluded from a zip code analysis, that TSDF sites were disproportionately sited in minority and low income communities, whilst Anderton et al. (1994), repeating the study for the smaller census tract, found no such association. The ecological fallacy likely explains why results of McLeod et al's. (2000) UK local authority district air quality analysis conflict with similar national studies addressing the much smaller census ward. ...
... milar diversity in the types and scales of study design, although there are also features that refl ect the particular national setting. National studies have all focused on indicators of deprivation and poverty (and largely ignored race or ethnicity), refl ecting the dominant wider framing of environmental justice in the UK discussed in Chapter 2 McLeod et al . 2000 ;Mitchell and Dorling 2003 ;Walker et al . 2003 ;Wheeler 2004 ). Regional and city studies, for example, have similarly used a range of largely class or income related variables, considering different pollutants and sometimes constructing aggregate pollution measures (Brainard et al . 2002 ;Fairburn et al . 2009 ;Pye et al . 2001 ). Most ...
Environmental justice has increasingly become part of the language of environmental activism, political debate, academic research and policy making around the world. It raises questions about how the environment impacts on different people’s lives. Does pollution follow the poor? Are some communities far more vulnerable to the impacts of flooding or climate change than others? Are the benefits of access to green space for all, or only for some? Do powerful voices dominate environmental decisions to the exclusion of others?
... Firstly, poorer subjects may be more exposed to higher levels of air pollutants due to their residential and/or occupational proximity to emitting sources. While this was described in the majority of studies [38,39], some did report opposite findings [18,40]. Within the city of Paris, we did not observe differences in annual mean NO 2 between census blocks by socioeconomic category (Fig 1). ...
Background
While a great number of papers have been published on the short-term effects of air pollution on mortality, few have tried to assess whether this association varies according to the neighbourhood socioeconomic level and long-term ambient air concentrations measured at the place of residence. We explored the effect modification of 1) socioeconomic status, 2) long-term NO2 ambient air concentrations, and 3) both combined, on the association between short-term exposure to NO2 and all-cause mortality in Paris (France).
Methods
A time-stratified case-crossover analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of short-term NO2 variations on mortality, based on 79,107 deaths having occurred among subjects aged over 35 years, from 2004 to 2009, in the city of Paris. Simple and double interactions were statistically tested in order to analyse effect modification by neighbourhood characteristics on the association between mortality and short-term NO2 exposure. The data was estimated at the census block scale (n=866).
Results
The mean of the NO2 concentrations during the five days prior to deaths were associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality: overall Excess Risk (ER) was 0.94% (95%CI=[0.08;1.80]. A higher risk was revealed for subjects living in the most deprived census blocks in comparison with higher socioeconomic level areas (ER=3.14% (95%CI=[1.41-4.90], p<0.001). Among these deprived census blocks, excess risk was even higher where long-term average NO2 concentrations were above 55.8 μg/m3 (the top tercile of distribution): ER=4.84% (95%CI=[1.56;8.24], p for interaction=0.02).
Conclusion
Our results show that people living in census blocks characterized by low socioeconomic status are more vulnerable to air pollution episodes. There is also an indication that people living in these disadvantaged census blocks might experience even higher risk following short-term air pollution episodes, when they are also chronically exposed to higher NO2 levels.
... Moves towards more deprived areas may not be harmful for individual health if they are for beneficial reasons and support a positive life course trajectory. Some movers, particularly young adults, may choose to live in deprived neighbourhoods as better quality housing is more affordable in these areas or because they offer educational and employment opportunities that may support their subsequent well-being [48][49][50]. ...
Objective:
Research has indicated that people moving towards neighbourhoods with disadvantaged socio-economic status have poor health, in particular mental health, but the reasons for this are unclear. This study aims to assess why people moving towards more socio-economically deprived areas have poor mental health. It focuses upon the role of difficult life events that may both trigger moves and damage mental health. This study investigates how mental health and socio-spatial patterns of mobility vary between people moving following difficult life events and for other reasons.
Methods:
Longitudinal analysis of British Household Panel Survey data describing adults' moves between annual survey waves, pooled over ten years, 1996-2006 (N=122,892 observations). Respondents were defined as 'difficult life event movers' if they had experienced relationship breakdown, housing eviction/repossession, or job loss between waves. Respondents were categorised as moving to more or less deprived quintiles using their Census Area Statistic residential ward Carstairs score. Mental health was indicated by self-reported mental health problems. Binary logistic regression models of weighted data were adjusted for age, sex, education and social class.
Results:
The migration rate over one year was 8.5%; 14.1% of movers had experienced a difficult life event during this time period. Adjusted regression model odds of mental health problems among difficult life event movers were 1.67 (95% CI 1.35-2.07) relative to other movers. Odds of difficult life events movers, compared to other movers, moving to a less deprived area, relative to an area with a similar level of deprivation, were 0.70 (95% CI 0.58-0.84). Odds of mental health problems among difficult life event movers relocating to more deprived areas were highly elevated at 2.40 (95% CI 1.63-3.53), relative to stayers.
Conclusion:
Difficult life events may influence health selective patterns of migration and socio-spatial trajectories, reducing moves to less deprived neighbourhoods among people with mental illness.
... These mechanisms could include historical patterns of industrial and urban development, land market dynamics, and procedural injustices in the sitting of polluting facilities or infrastructure. Some studies point to unequal exposure by income, race, and immigration status in France, 26 in the United Kingdom 27,28,29 and in the U.S. 1 Other studies noted inequitable enforcement of environmental regulations 30,31 and unfair siting procedures for polluting facilities. 1, 32,33,34 While the socio-political forces that generate environmental inequalities are best investigated through in-depth local-level analyses, the SED index points to geographical areas of cumulated risks where such investigations are most needed. ...
Despite increasingly stringent environmental regulations, industrial and transportation emissions continue impact public health. Since vulnerable populations bear a disproportionate burden of environmental risks, spatial differentials in environmental exposure contribute to social disparities in health outcomes. Environmental Justice (EJ) analyses tend to focus either on the location of selected point or nonpoint pollution on a whole territory (the geography of toxic waste sites, atmospheric pollution) or on local disproportionate impacts of multiple exposures (demographics near specific industrial clusters). We lack tools that can identify present spatial environmental inequalities and take into account multiple environmental risks through different media over large territories. To address this gap, this study proposes an original, comprehensive, replicable, and scalable spatial environmental deprivation (SED) index. The SED index is applied in the French context. We validate the robustness and usefulness of the index by confronting its outputs to local mortality rates and verifying that it is a significant predictor of health outcomes. The application of the SED index targets environmental interventions (e.g., facility siting and decontamination prioritization) and policies that seek to reduce spatial and social inequalities.
... Previous studies conducted in the UK questioned the observed racial inequalities because of potential confounding with deprivation (Brainard et al., 2002). McLeod et al. (2000), however, detected higher air pollution concentrations in areas with greater proportions of ethnic minorities in England after controlling for socioeconomic status. This is in line with our findings where the large associations between high air pollution levels and ethnic diverse neighbourhoods prevail after adjustment for deprivation and other demographic factors. ...
... 25 Our findings might be explained in part by young, healthy, high socio-economic status adults choosing to move to inner urban areas 39 because the benefits of their education, employment and cultural opportunities outweigh the disadvantages of their physical environments. 40 As MEDIx includes a measure of cold temperature as a pathogen and ultraviolet B radiation as a salutogen many of the most deprived wards are located in Scotland and northern England. 2 Among the small proportion of movers that migrate between regions, 34 those moving from the north to more southern areas with lower MEDIx deprivation may have relatively poor health. 41 -45 Limitations of this study ...
Background:
Selective migration may influence the association between physical environments and health. This analysis assessed whether residential mobility concentrates people with poor health in neighbourhoods of the UK with disadvantaged physical environments.
Methods:
Data were from the British Household Panel Survey. Moves were over 1 year between adjacent survey waves, pooled over 10 pairs of waves, 1996-2006. Health outcomes were self-reported poor general health and mental health problems. Neighbourhood physical environment was defined using the Multiple Environmental Deprivation Index (MEDIx) for wards. Logistic regression analysis compared risk of poor health in MEDIx categories before and after moves. Analyses were stratified by age groups 18-29, 30-44, 45-59 and 60+ years and adjusted for age, sex, marital status, household type, housing tenure, education and social class.
Results:
The pooled data contained 122 570 observations. 8.5% moved between survey waves but just 3.0% changed their MEDIx category. In all age groups odds ratios for poor general and mental health were not significantly increased in the most environmentally deprived neighbourhoods following moves.
Conclusions:
Over a 1-year time period residential moves between environments with different levels of multiple physical deprivation were rare and did not significantly raise rates of poor health in the most deprived areas.
... Environmental hazards that cannot be immediately detectable, for example, some types of air pollution, may be less likely to prompt migration. Other aspects of poor physical environments in urban areas may be understood by residents as the price that is paid for superior economic and cultural opportunities (McLeod et al., 2000). Another MEDIx indicator, cold temperature, does not vary significantly between neighbourhoods in the same region so is unlikely to prompt short distance moves. ...
Residential mobility may play an important role in influencing both individual health, by determining individual exposures to environments, and area health, by shaping area population composition. This study is the first analysis of migration within the UK to compare general and mental health among adults by age group and consider moves between neighbourhoods with different levels of both socio-economic and physical environment disadvantage. The analysis assesses 122,570 cases from the annual British Household Panel Survey, 1996-2006, based upon pooled data describing moves between consecutive waves of the survey. It assesses the rates and binary logistic regression model odds of self-reported general health and mental health problems of movers and stayers by age group. It also compares movers between Census Area Statistics wards in the UK with different levels of Carstairs and Multiple Environmental Deprivation Index (MEDIx) scores. At all ages, movers had similar or higher odds of poor general and mental health relative to non-movers. Risk of mental health problems were particularly elevated among movers and remained significant after adjustment for socio-demographic variables in most age groups. In adjusted analysis of all adults odds of poor general and mental health were most elevated among movers to more socio-economically deprived areas, with the highest odds for mental health (1.54 95% CI 1.27-1.86). In contrast, risk of poor mental health among total adults was greatest among movers to better physical environments (1.40 95% CI 1.16-1.70). This study therefore finds little evidence of 'healthy migrant effects' among recent movers within the UK and suggests movers have particularly elevated risk of mental health problems. It also indicates that selective migration may not contribute to poor health found in UK neighbourhoods with multiple physical environment deprivation. Further analysis should explore why people with mental health problems are more likely to move to socio-economically deprived neighbourhoods.
... However, especially in the UK, the environmental justice debate has started to expand by integrating environmental issues and social justice perspective. McLeod et al. (2000) found that higher social classes were more likely to be exposed to greater air pollution. However, other studies (Brainard et al., 2002;Naess et al., 2007;Namdeo and Stringer, 2008;Wheeler and Ben-Shlomo, 2005) found that air quality is poorer among households of low social class. ...
... The environmental justice hypothesis that the lower-income groups bear higher commuting exposures is therefore not supported in this study. Such a finding, of more affluent groups bearing higher air quality exposures, has also been reported in other environmental justice studies in the United Kingdom (e.g., McLeod et al. 32 ). Mitchell and Dorling 8 have also cited other studies that have only a weak or no association between social indicators and air quality. ...
The Information Technology (IT) industry in the globalizing city of Bangalore has transformed the socio-economic characteristics of the city. The intent of this study, developed from an environmental justice framework, was to determine whether air pollutant exposure while commuting to and from work is related to a commuter's income characteristics and whether differences are larger for the IT economy when compared with a traditional manufacturing-oriented economy of the city. The study measured exposures to CO and PM10 using personal samplers for a sample of employees of a traditional public sector manufacturing industry (n=20) and an IT industry (n=26). This approach overcomes the methodological limitations of previous environmental justice studies. Socio-economic characteristics were obtained from a questionnaire-based survey of 436 employees in two firms. The results do not support the environmental justice hypothesis for commuting in Bangalore mainly because longer commuting times of higher-income groups offsets the benefits of lower pollutant concentrations. The study nevertheless demonstrates the use of personal exposure for environmental justice assessments.Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology advance online publication, 21 May 2014; doi:10.1038/jes.2014.34.
... " However, especially in the U.K. the environmental justice debate has started to expand by integrating environmental issues and social justice perspective. In Europe, in fact, the majority of the empirical studies took place in U.K. In England and Wales, McLeod et al. (2000) investigate the relationship between particulate matter (PM 10 ) 6 , nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) and sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ), and a vector of socioeconomic indicators. They found that higher social 6 Particulate matter of solid or liquid matter suspended in the atmosphere; PM 10 particles (<10 µm) and PM 2.5 particles (<2.5 µm) are of major health and environmental concern. ...
This paper provides an environmental justice empirical analysis on the relationship between income, demographic characteristics and concentrations of air industrial pollutants within the Italian provinces. Two general conclusions can be drawn from the empirical results. First, the estimates obtained are consistent with an inverse U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve: air pollution releases increase with income up to a turning point, where the relation reverts. Second, there is evidence that air releases tend to be higher in provinces with high concentration of females as households’ head and with high concentration of children. Since our findings do not point to environmental discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, this suggests that environmental justice issues in Italy are not likely to manifest themselves along racial and ethnic terms but instead in terms of social categories and gender composition. We also find that judicial inefficiency (a measure of the inefficiency of law enforcement) is associated with higher levels of pollution. In terms of policy implications, this result suggests the need to strengthen, all through the territory, the local enforcement of environmental laws in order to possibly reduce the negative effects on ambient air pollution.
... Harvey White (1998) provided an early summary of EJ research highlighting a range of local issues amongst disadvantaged communities in the United States, including pesticide use, air pollution, children's blood lead levels, toxic fish (where communities rely on local fishing), hazardous waste facilities, hazardous releases (air and groundwater) and facility siting. The literature has also grown beyond the United States including emergent research in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and elsewhere (Jerrett et al., 2001;Lloyd-Smith and Bell, 2003;McCleod et al., 2000;Brainard et al., 2002;Mitchell and Dorling, 2003). ...
Türkiye’de çevre sorunlarından dolayı binlerce insan ölümcül hastalıklara yakalanıyor ve hayatını kaybediyor. Önümüzdeki yıllarda bu sayıların milyonlara ulaşmasının kaçınılmaz bir sonuç olduğunu söylemek acı ama su götürmez bir gerçek. Ülkemizde yaşanan çevre krizi, ulusal güvenlik sorununa doğru dönüşüyor. Çevre sorunlarının bir beka meselesine evrilmesinin arifesinde yeşil siyaset Türkiye’nin ulusal güvenliğini sağlayabilmesinin asgari koşuludur. Yeşil siyaset, bu topraklarda torunlarımızın, yani gelecek kuşakların özgür, adil ve kendi kendine yetebilecek şekilde yaşayabilmesinin garantisidir. Bu kitap, çevre dostu politikaların manifestosunu ortaya koyarak yeşil siyasetin şifrelerini kamuoyu ile paylaşmaktadır.
Certain ethnicities and people of lower socio-economic status are argued to be disproportionately affected through exposure to higher levels of air pollution, a source of environmental injustice. This study explores potential inequalities in exposure across England and seven urban areas identified as problematic in terms of air quality, by comparing 2017 modelled Particulate Matter (PM) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) concentrations and more detailed population characteristics regarding socio-economic deprivation and ethnicity. Correlation, comparison of means across quintiles and quantile regression analysis identified significant positive relationships between annual average pollutant concentrations and population characteristics. Concentrations tended to increase for more socio-economically deprived neighbourhoods and neighbourhoods with higher proportions of specific ethnicities, but the degree of association varied according to the pollutant, scale of analysis, urban area, components of socio-economic deprivation and ethnicity. Such results imply that, whilst environmental inequalities exist, there is no consistent system of environmental inequality across England. Between socio-economic and demographic factors, the largest associations with pollutant concentrations nationally are observed for measures of ethnicity, notably for Asian, Asian British, African-Caribbean or Black British subpopulations, an important finding with implications towards notions of environmental justice.
Environmental injustices—in the form of inequitable distribution of environmental risks and benefits, uneven access to decision‐making processes, and misrecognition of communities—have been documented globally. However, in Canada, many have argued that the story of environmental injustice is less widely known, with more fragmented research that has produced little in terms of public policies intended to alleviate injustice. This paper uses a meta‐narrative review approach to map the evolution of environmental justice research in Canada between 2006‐2017, and characterize how central themes, emerging trends, and gaps in the literature have changed since the last review of this kind was completed. We conducted a systematic search of publications addressing environmental justice in Canada, yielding 820 publications. We coded abstracts to assess patterns of coverage across space, time, topics, and populations of focus. We find that Canadian environmental justice literature has continued to grow in quantity and scope, addressing more dimensions of environmental harms and benefits, and from an increasingly integrated perspective. However, there remain important and persistent gaps in its coverage. Future research that more fully addresses these geographic (e.g., Atlantic and Prairie regions), topical (e.g., focus on prevention), and recognitional (e.g., racialization) gaps is needed to inform policy‐making and promote justice .
This paper uses an environmental justice framework to explore whether existing vulnerabilities in Puerto Rico are associated with the rate of electricity restoration after Hurricane María. Based on the literature discussing the relationship be tween vulnerability and environmental justice, we expected that the areas identified as vulnerable to environmental injustice would recover more slowly than less vulnerable areas. We use regression analysis to analyze how well three vulnerability indices based on environmental justice variables predict electricity restoration. We also ma p the resulting data to spatially situate recovery patterns. This analysis produces mixed evidence of our predictions. In addition to environmental justice factors, other factors, such as terrain and proximity to electric transmission lines, also affected recovery rates, complicating the narrative of recovery. These findings suggest that policymakers seeking to mitigate vulnerability to electricity outages in the wake of natural disasters should incorporate environmental justice analysis in their recovery prioritization decisions, and that this analysis should be contextually specific to the recovery area. Our analysis also includes the construction of environmental justice indices, which have the potential to be a useful advocacy tool for communities seeking to un cover the priorities of stakeholders engaged in recovery .
Low-cost sensors (LCSs) are widely acknowledged for bringing a paradigm shift in supplemental traditional air monitoring by air regulatory agencies. However, there is concern regarding its data quality and performance stability, which has greatly restricted its large-scale applications. Knowing the recent techniques, progress, and challenges of LCS calibration is of immense significance to promote the field of environmental monitoring. By summarizing the published evidence, this review shows that the global sensor market is rapidly expanding due to the surging needs, but the calibration efforts have been focused on a limited selection of sensors. Relative humidity correction, regression, and machine learning are the three mainstream calibration techniques. Although there is no one-size-fits-all solution, a feature of the latest research tendency is machine learning. The duration of calibration is largely neglected in the experiment design, but it is found to affect the performance of different calibration methods, especially those that are data-driven. Geographically, China and the United States gained the most research attention in the sensor calibration field, but the spatial mismatch between particulate matter hotspots and calibration sites is quite evident for the rest of the world. Incomplete and unevenly distributed research footprints could limit the large-scale test of method generalizability, as well as diminish the monitoring capacity in underserved areas that suffer greater environmental justice crises. In general, model performance is enhanced by including the key influencing factors, but the degree of improvement is not evidently related to the number of explanatory variables. Overall, studies prove the critical importance of field calibration before sensor deployment, but more studies are needed to establish experiment protocols that can be customized to specific needs.
Restaurants and vehicles are important urban sources of particulate matter (PM). Due to the ubiquitous presence of these sources within cities, large variabilities in PM concentrations occur in source-rich environments (e.g., downtown), especially during times of peak activity such as meal times and rush hour. Due to intracity variations in factors such as racial-ethnic composition and economic status, we hypothesized that certain socioeconomic groups living closer to sources are exposed to higher PM concentrations. To test this hypothesis, we coupled mobile PM measurements with census data in two midsize US cities: Oakland, CA, and Pittsburgh, PA. A novel aspect of our study is that our measurements are performed at a high (block-level) spatial resolution, which enables us to assess the direct relationship between PM concentrations and socioeconomic metrics across different neighborhoods of these two cities. We find that restaurants cause long-term average PM enhancements of 0.1 to 0.3 µg m −3 over length scales between 50 and 450 m. We also find that this PM pollution from restaurants is unevenly distributed amongst different socioeconomic groups. On average, areas near restaurant emissions have about 1.5× people of color (African American, Hispanic, Asian, etc.), 2.5× poverty, and 0.8× household income, compared to areas far from restaurant emissions. Our findings imply that there are socioeconomic disparities in long-term exposure to PM emissions from restaurants. Further, these socioeconomic groups also frequently experience acutely high levels of cooking PM (tens to hundreds of µg m −3 in mass concentrations) and co-emitted pollutants. While there are large variations in socioeconomic metrics with respect to restaurant proximity, we find that these metrics are spatially invariant with respect to highway proximity. Thus, any socioeconomic disparities in exposure to highway emissions are, at most, mild, and certainly small compared to disparities in exposure to restaurant emissions.
The challenges in future energy transition will be regional and seasonal nature of renewable energy and air pollution. Regional factors of air pollution involve regional equity, and only a few researches tackled long-term power planning with mitigation of air pollution. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a balanced long-term power planning model with compromise solutions and to decide the power generation configuration under seasonal, regional and air pollution factors in addition to cost. Based on empirical study of Taiwan, the future thinking of air pollution reduction should accept transmission from renewable energy between regions due to the cost effective and environmental benefits. The renewable energy and minor increase in non-renewable energy with better equipment will mitigate the emissions. The coal power will be the source of flexible scheduling at peak load. Interregional cooperation with seasonal power dispatching has become the future direction. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to provide suggestions when decision makers’ preference change. This study can serve as a decision support system for policymakers and a platform for stakeholders to discuss future visions on power planning. Further, this model can be applied to other countries that are experiencing economic development and environmental protection dilemmas.
The objective of the study is to examine the dynamic linkages among electricity production from renewable sources, permanent cropland, high technology exports, health expenditures, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the panel of 14 selected Latin America and the Caribbean countries, over the period of 1980–2013. The study employed panel unit root test, panel cointegration, panel least square, panel fixed effect model, panel random effect model, and panel two stage least square (2SLS) instrumental variables technique for robust inferences. The results confirmed the long-run relationship between the variables. The panel results indicate the effectiveness of high-technology exports that decreases the CO2 emissions, while electricity production, permanent cropland and health expenditures increase CO2 emissions, which deteriorates the environment. The study concludes with the support of long-term sustainable policies, which is imperative for sound growth in a panel of countries.
Previous research has highlighted significant socio-environmental inequalities in the UK and elsewhere. A city's greatest polluters typically reside in affluent suburban communities located along the city's periphery, while those creating the least emissions reside in central locations, and most likely experience the largest associated health burdens. Using the culturally diverse city of Leicester as a study case, and building on Mitchell and Dorling's (2003) localised form of the Polluter Pays Principle, we investigate this environmental injustice. A pattern detection analysis of localised intra-urban interactions was undertaken using a ‘Local Indicators of Spatial Association’ (LISA) modelling approach of high resolution census data, Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) records, road transport emission maps and geocoded hospital admissions records provided by the NHS Leicester City Primary Care Trust.
Recently, in France, several researchers and public authorities tried to define environmental inequalities, in order to put this topic on the agenda and to better-feed issues of sustainable development. However, such definitions, conventional (from Anglo-Saxon countries) as extensive one, do not succeed to catch some urban situations characterised by environmental inequalities. We try here to show that to be more explicit on definitions, and perhaps to be more effective in actions, we should clarify the different conceptions of environment behind these several tentative, mainly between an historical one (based on technical approach and command and control procedures), and a more recent one (based on local environment, others knowledge and more participative decision making processes). To have focus on the increasing gap between these two conception could led to define environmental inequalities as social and territorial inequalities, linked to capacities and means given to populations and local authorities to improve their own environment.
This paper presents the first nationwide study of environmental health inequalities in France. Using an econometric analysis of panel data collected from 2000 through 2004 at the district level, we investigated total mortality rates in relation to socioeconomic status and air pollution. Concentrations of CO, SO2, NO2, NO, O3 and PM10 were estimated by spatial interpolation from local observations by a network of monitoring stations. We used a multivariate model to investigate first the relationship between socioeconomic factors and total mortality; we next assessed its relationship with the environmental air quality measured within the district. Mortality was positively and significantly related to NO2 especially at high concentrations, and the relative risk was higher for women. NO2 levels also tended to modify the effect of unemployment on the mortality rate.
Solid evidence of social inequalities in health is today established in most industrialised countries. A part of these inequalities is likely to be explained by environmental exposures, especially air pollution exposures. Indeed, groups with lower socioeconomic status may simultaneously be more highly exposed to air pollution and more susceptible to its deleterious effects. This thesis aimed to explore the contribution of air pollution to social inequalities in health, while making progress in the understanding of involved mechanisms. In this context, we chose to be interested in the short-term association between air pollution and myocardial infarction onset and to investigate this relation using an ecological approach.
This study was carried out on the Strasbourg metropolitan area (SMA, Bas-Rhin) on a small-area scale (IRIS equivalent to a residential neighborhood). Myocardial infarction events occurred among population aged 35-74 years from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2003 (n = 1193) were collected from the Bas-Rhin coronary heart disease registry. Hourly air pollution concentrations (NO2, PM10, O3 and CO) were modeled at neighborhood level using ADMS Urban model. Neighborhood socioeconomic status was estimated by a deprivation index, constructed by a principal component analysis from census data.
We first sought to assess the degree of environmental injustice which prevailed in our study area in order to check the assumption of an exposure differential to air pollution according to neighborhood socioeconomic status. Our spatial regression analysis demonstrated the existence of socioeconomic disparities in air pollution exposure; the midlevel deprivation neighborhoods, located in direct contact with the principal highway arteries that surround the urban centre, were most exposed to traffic-related air pollution.
We then addressed to examine the association between neighborhood socioeconomic status and myocardial infarction onset in order to check the assumption of social inequalities in health in our study area. Our Bayesian analysis showed that the existence of strong socioeconomic gradients in myocardial infarction risk among men and women and emphasized a singular susceptibility of women living in the most deprived neighborhoods.
We finally explored the contribution of air pollution to social inequalities in health while examining whether neighborhood socioeconomic status modified the effects of air pollution on myocardial infarction risk. Our case-crossover analysis highlighted a greater effect of particulate air pollution among subjects living in the most deprived neighborhoods, especially women aged 55-74 years. Depending on the results previously reported, these results may be more explained by a susceptibility differential than an exposure differential. Research into the mechanisms responsible for this increased sensitivity needs to continue so that appropriate public health actions can be taken to protect these susceptible populations.
The existence of environment-related health risks is now being acknowledged in France. According to estimates by the French Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development, 30,000 premature deaths per year and 7% to 20% of cancers may be linked to environmental factors such as diffuse source pollution (motor vehicles, pesticides) and point source pollution (incinerators, landfills, industrial facilities). Social inequalities in exposure to environmental risks have been observed in many industrialized countries (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany). France is also directly concerned by this question: are we all equal in the face of pollution, or are the most disadvantaged populations also those with the highest exposure? This short paper reviews the current state of methodological and analytical knowledge on the social distribution of environmental risks with a view to stimulating further research on this issue in France.
This paper presents the first study of environmental inequality related to health in France on the national scale. Through econometric analysis based on panel data from 2000 to 2004, at the level of France’s departments (administrative areas similar in size to counties in the United Kingdom or the United States.), I investigate the total mortality rate in relation to socioeconomic status and air pollution. The concentration level of \(\hbox {NO}_{2}, \hbox {O}_{3}\) and \(\hbox {PM}_{10}\) are estimated by spatial interpolation from local observations made by a network of monitoring stations. I found a positive and significant relationship between \(\hbox {NO}_{2}\) levels and the mortality rate, at mean levels below the current standard, with a greater relative risk for women. Moreover I observed disparities in health related to income among French departments. These results not only confirm the existence of a relationship between current air pollution levels and mortality but also raise questions about environmental policy implications in France.
Climate change has been labeled a “wicked problem par excellence” (Jordan, Huitema, van Asselt, et al., 2010) because of its scientific complexity and lack of policy agreements on how best to manage its impacts. To complicate matters further, those who accept anthropogenic (human-activity-related) causation of global warming and climate change point to human desires for betterment of our quality of life and business/economic pursuits as the root cause for the increased greenhouse gas emissions, while those who propose a natural causation point to a deterioration in the habitability of the planet and the resultant impact on mankind. This state of affairs leads to a peculiar situation where sustainability-oriented climate-change mitigation efforts are seen by many as either resulting in reduction of our present quality of life (becoming frugal), or as a burdensome drag on the global economy (becoming poor), or both—all in an attempt to address an ambiguous issue with an indeterminate outcome and an unknown likelihood of occurrence. Such uncertainties in turn lead to further delays in developing any coherent attempts at addressing the underlying issues, and these delays are seen as exacerbating the issue further as human activities like deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. There seems to be consensus that the “risks” involved are untenable, though perspectives on what needs to be done, how, and by whom are conditional on different factors and sometimes at cross purposes.
Emissions from road transport such as noise, particles and gasses have been associated with issues of environmental justice in urban areas. To date, the majority of analyses of this issue have used income, education, employment situation or ethnicity as parameters for distinguishing socio-economic groups, which might be unequally affected by such emissions in their home. However, in addition to people's residential locations, their daily patterns of time use in conjunction with traffic flows can also play a major role in determining their level of exposure to transport emissions. Through analysing time use surveys from Germany and the UK to establish human daily activity patterns in terms of time spent at home, this paper shows that the parameters age and gender are at least as important in identifying groups that might be disproportionately affected by road transport emissions in their homes in urban areas as are income, education and employment situation. The paper also sets the average time use patterns of different population groups in Germany against representative traffic flows on main roads in Hamburg, Germany, to investigate how differences in time use might relate to variations in traffic patterns. The paper focuses on the residential location as the most common unit of EJ investigations and also the place, where people spend most of their time.
The purpose of this research is to examine a multilevel approach to property hedonic models. Because individual properties are nested within neighborhoods within a city, a multilevel method is used to develop hedonic models. The author analyses several statistical and substantive reasons for explicitly modeling individual properties as belonging to neighborhoods. The reasons include spatial dependencies, non-stationarity and spatial heterogeneity. The conclusion is that multilevel models are not the only means of addressing issues of spatial dependencies and non-stationarity. The advantage of using a multilevel approach for property hedonic models is that they can analyze variables from different scales simultaneously, while also accounting for issues of spatial dependencies and non-stationarity.
Outdoor smog chambers experiments were performed on air to determine the answer of maximum ozone levels, to changes in the initial hydrocarbons, HC, and nitrogen oxide NOx. These captive-air experiments under natural irradiation were carried out. Typically, eight chambers were filled with Mexico City air in the morning. In some of those chambers, the initial HC and/or NOx concentrations were varied by 25% to +50% by adding various combinations of a mixture of HC, clean air, or NOx (perturbed chambers). The O3 and NOx concentration in each chamber was monitored throughout the day to determine O3 (max). The initial HC and NOx concentration effects were determined by comparing the maximum ozone concentrations measured in the perturbed and unperturbed chambers. Ozone isopleths were constructed from the empirical model obtained of measurements of the eight chambers and plotted in a graph whose axes were the initial HC and NOx values. For the average initial conditions that were measured in Mexico City, It was found that the most efficient strategy to reduce the maximum concentration of O3 is the one that reduces NOx.
Ecological studies of health effects due to agent exposure are generally considered to be a blunt instrument of scientific investigation, unfit to determine the "true" exposure-effect relationship for an agent. Based on this widely accepted tenet, ecological studies of the correlation between the local air concentration of radon and the local lung cancer mortality as measured by Cohen have been criticized as being subject to the "Ecological Fallacy" and thus producing invalid risk data. Here we discuss the data that a risk assessment needs as a minimum requirement for making a valid risk estimate. The examination of these data and a "thought experiment" show that it is Cohen's raw ecological data, uncorrected for population characteristic factors, which are the proper data for a risk assessment. Consequently, the "true" exposure-effect relationship is less and less important the more population characteristic factors are identified and the larger they are. This reversal of the usual argument is due to our approach: Here, the prediction of the health effects in an exposed population is of primary importance, not the shape of the "true" exposure-effect relationship. The results derived in this paper hold for ecological studies of any agent causing any health or other effect.
It is argued that multi-level models based on shrinkage estimators represent a considerable improvement over single-level models estimated by ordinary-least squares. In substantive terms, the ML models allow relationships to vary in time and space according to context. Shrinkage estimators make very efficient use of the information contained in the hierarchical data sets that are estimated by ML models. A number of ML models for house-price variation are specified in terms of fixed and random, allowed-to-vary, effects. Empirical illustrations of some of the these ML models are given for house-price variation in Southampton. -Author
Air pollution is not spread evenly across demographic groups. Exposures and associated health risks appear to fall disproportionately on populations that are poor and nonwhite. Although scientific evidence documenting disparities in air pollution exposures, doses, and health effects is scant, the available data strongly support the contention that disadvantaged groups, many of whom are ethnic and racial minorities, routinely encounter levels of air pollution that are higher than average. The extent to which exposure differentials contribute to observed differences in health status by class and race is unknown, but worthy of further investigation. We recommend several steps, all of them feasible and most of them relatively inexpensive, to improve our understanding and ability to address environmental health disparities.
Local area spatial analysis, using census-type data and derived indicators, has an important role in the allocation of public resources. The Government places a growing emphasis upon the evaluation of such allocation decisions and the need for them to be substantively justified. Traditional zone-based analysis, using administrative areas such as districts or wards, have long been recognised as suffering both geographical and inferential limitations in this role. Here, a surface model approach to population-based data representation is described which offers important advantages for inferential work over traditional methods. Local area indicators can be uniquely generated with great spatial flexibility. This article has demonstrated the versatility of surface model concepts applied to areas of public policy. The methods outlined address a central requirement in the use of social and economic data derived from a variety of sources in informing public policy making to ensure that the form of representation accords closely with the nature of the phenomenon. More generally the approach has important properties of data integration and analysis that are likely to have wider application for information handling in geography and planning. -from Author
The paper considers trends in the incidence of suicide in London in relation to national trends and highlights the distinctive fall in its suicide levels. Within London differentials across boroughs and wards are investigated, with particular regard to contextual variability across subpopulations in the impact of social deprivation and social fragmentation (anomie). Patterns of causation also differ for suicide disaggregated by age group and sex. The relevance of these differentials for explaining the distinctive trend in London's overall suicide rate is discussed.
The current process of globalization, with deep historical roots, has had a significant impact on social problems in U.S. cities. My focus is the links between globalization, immigration, and urban social relations. At the heart of this linkage is an economic restructuring across societies and in the U.S. city that has potent social consequences for immigrant populations. Such people, induced to migrate by changing economic circumstances, find growing ghettoization, isolation, and cultural antipathies in their new settings. In the new globality, immigrant populations are commonly fingered as the other, the invading and ominous people threatening time-tested social norms and economic principles.
Facility-specific information on pollution was obtained for 36 coke plants and 46 oil refineries in the United States and matched with information on populations surrounding these 82 facilities. These data were analyzed to determine whether environmental inequities were present, whether they were more economic or racial in nature, and whether the racial composition of nearby communities has changed significantly since plants began operations.
The Census tracts near coke plants have a disproportionate share of poor and nonwhite residents. Multivariate analyses suggest that existing inequities are primarily economic in nature. The findings for oil refineries are not strongly supportive of the environmental inequity hypothesis. Rank ordering of facilities by race, poverty, and pollution produces limited (although not consistent) evidence that the more risky facilities tend to be operating in communities with above-median proportions of nonwhite residents (near coke plants) and Hispanic residents (near oil refineries). Over time, the racial makeup of many communities near facilities has changed significantly, particularly in the case of coke plants sited in the early 1900s. Further risk-oriented studies of multiple manufacturing facilities in various industrial sectors of the economy are recommended.
Early “environmental equity” studies claimed hazardous waste facilities (TSDFs) were disproportionately located in minority and disadvantaged communities. Recently, research has challenged such claims. Regardless of conclusions, no national study has evaluated inequity in the siting process or the impact of TSDFs on the demographic composition of communities after TSDFs began operations, or distinguished between TSDF-caused change and general population trends. This article presents findings from the first national tract-level longitudinal study of communities with TSDFs. We find no stark evidence of environmental inequity or disparate impact. Results suggest compositional change in host communities may best be explained by general population trends.
The issue of environmental equity has received considerable media attention in the United States recently, generating a flurry of activity among members of the environmental community, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the leading environmental groups. Many studies have investigated the existence of inequities in the distribution of noxious, toxic or otherwise unwanted facilities, and many more studies are ongoing. Most of these studies have been conducted at a national or regional scale, and involve comparing the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of host and non-host communities. The distribution of facilities is considered inequitable if the percentage of minorities is disproportionately higher or the socioeconomic status is disproportionately lower in the host communities. Census tracts and counties are the most commonly used unit of analysis because data are readily available in these forms from the U.S. Census Bureau. Relatively little attention has been paid, however, to the problem that using data in such an aggregated form may mask much that is significant in analyses of environmental equity, and little has been done to determine what the most appropriate units of analysis are for these kinds of studies. By comparison, this investigation finds that the unit of analysis chosen can have profound effects on the results of an equity analysis and their interpretation. It also demonstrates that geographical information systems (GIS) offer a powerful means of devising more appropriate units of analysis and examining such effects.
Social equity has become an important concern of the environmental movement over the past decade. The equity issue is analyzed here for practically all of the inactive hazardous waste disposal sites on the National Priorities List (NPL) regulated under the Comprehensive Response Compensation and Liability Act and its 1986 Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (CERCLA/ SARA). Two dimensions of equity are emphasized, namely, site location relative to the location of minority populations and the distribution of cleanup plans or Records of Decision (ROD) across communities with NPL sites that have different socioeconomic characteristics. With respect to site location, the percentage of Blacks and Hispanics aggregated at the Census Place or MCD level in communities with NPL sites was greater than is typical nationwide (largely attributable to the concentration of minority populations in a few large urban areas with NPL sites). In contrast, the percentage of the population below the poverty line in communities with NPL sites largely matched that of the nation as a whole. With respect to site cleanup, communities with relatively higher percentages of racial minority populations have fewer cleanup plans (Records of Decision signed) than other communities with NPL sites. Whether a ROD exists is influenced by when the site was designated for the NPL: sites designated earlier (prior to the SARA amendments of 1986) are more likely to have RODs, and also less likely to have high proportions of racial minority populations than sites designated later. This implies that initially the designation process may have resulted in NPL sites being located disproportionately in minority areas, but this pattern seems to be reversing itself in more recently designated sites. As with any statistical analysis, these findings are findings of association and not causality. Thus, racial and ethnic disproportionalities with respect to inactive hazardous waste site location seem to be concentrated in a relatively few areas. Disproportionalities with respect to cleanup do exist, but appear to be more a function of the nature of the process of designation of NPL sites in the early 1980s rather than a result of actions connected with cleanup plans per se. Further investigations are needed at alternative geographic scales to discern the sensitivity of patterns of inequity to distance from the sites.
A growing body of research documents the inequitable impact of environmental hazards on poor and minority communities. This paper uses the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory for 1987–1990 and the 1990 Census of Population and Housing to analyze the spatial distribution of toxic industrial pollution and demographic groups in Ohio. In apparent support of the previous body of research, we report high correlations between racial variables and level of toxic release at the county level. The highest levels of toxic release in Ohio occur in the state's most urban counties, fourteen of which contain approximately 90 percent of the state's minority population. However, a census-tract examination of the most urban of these counties, Cuyahoga, reveals no relationships between race and toxicity. The tract-level data do provide some evidence of income-environment inequity, and these findings prompt several methodological advisories for further research. The principal conclusion of the paper is that spatial scale is critical in studies of industrial environmental hazards and environmental justice.
Previous research suggests that minority residential areas have a disproportionate likelihood of hosting various environmental hazards. Some critics have responded that the contemporary correlation of race and hazards may reflect post-siting minority move-in, perhaps because of a risk effect on housing costs, rather than discrimination in siting. This article examines the disproportionate siting and minority move-in hypotheses in Los Angeles County by reconciling tract geography and data over three decades with firm-level information on the initial siting dates for toxic storage and disposal facilities. Using simple t-tests, logit analysis, and a novel simultaneous model, we find that disproportionate siting matters more than disproportionate minority move-in in the sample area. Racial transition is also an important predictor of siting, suggesting a role for multiracial organizing in resisting new facilities.
This paper examines how air pollution control policies will affect the welfare of the different races in Southern California. The paper adopts the concept of the Net Welfare Impact (NWI) function to measure how air quality improvements affect the welfare (monetary and non-monetary) of individual households. The core finding is that many of the benefits of air quality improvement are enjoyed by minorities, especially Latinos (and African-Americans and Asians to a lesser extent), whose household incomes tend to be lower and family size larger than the regional average, and who are more likely to live in the neighbourhoods that are currently polluted. Thus, because minorities have suffered more from dirty air, they are the major beneficiaries from implementation of clean air policies. This is the result of the Federal clean air mandate that dictates uniform standards for all metropolitan areas.
In multiple regression it is shown that parameter estimates based on minimum residual sum of squares have a high probability of being unsatisfactory, if not incorrect, if the prediction vectors are not orthogonal. Proposed is an estimation procedure based on adding small positive quantities to the diagonal of X′X. Introduced is the ridge trace, a method for showing in two dimensions the effects of nonorthogonality. It is then shown how to augment X′X to obtain biased estimates with smaller mean square error.
The advantages of handling population data in GIS as a raster surface rather than as zonal attributes are discussed, and a technique for creating such surfaces briefly reviewed. Existing models created by this method using the 1991 UK Census are then compared with equivalent zonal data and some weaknesses identified, in particular the poor association between enumeration districts and 200 m grid cells. A refined version of the surface generation technique is presented in which population totals are constrained within zone boundaries, while residential geography is retained with considerable success.
There currently is a scarcity of scientific information to guide public policy decisions about issues of ''environmental justice''; broadly defined as the goal of achieving adequate protection from the harmful effects of environmental agents for everyone, regardless of age, culture, ethnicity, gender, race, or socioeconomic status. This paper highlights several key methodological issues that need to be addressed as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the scientific foundation for informed decision-making regarding environmental justice. Specifically, careful thought must be given to the selection of appropriate (1) statistical tests, (2) geographic unit(s) of analysis, (3)exposure estimators, and (4) comparison (reference) populations. These methodological issues are examined in the context of a nationwide study looking at the differences by ethnicity/race and household income in county-level air emissions of industrial chemicals. National and regional comparisons are made for 1990 using emission estimates from the Toxic Release Inventory, demographic data from the Census, and income data from the Donnelley Marketing Information Services.
This research uses neighborhood characteristics (at the zipcode level) to explain changes in toxic releases between 1990 and 1993. It combines the Toxics Release Inventory data with demographic data from the 1990 US Census. We first analyze the location of manufacturing facilities in a particular neighborhood using a sample selection model, and then attribute changes in the level of emissions between 1990 and 1993 to the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the neighborhood in 1990. The results indicate that variables likely to affect the propensity for communities to engage in political action significantly influence environmental performance. Economic characteristics of neighborhoods (such as income levels and unemployment) also affect changes in releases. Release changes in the Southeastern US exhibit a pattern consistent with racial injustice.
In this paper, we attempt to contribute to the growing environmental justice debate by exploring environmental equity in the forty-nine counties of Ontario, Canada. We use multiple regression analysis to address a central research question: what variables predict the location of pollution emissions? Data were extracted from the 1993 National Pollutant Release Inventory and the 1991 Census of Canada to assess relationships among socioeconomic class variables, industrial and land-use variables, and pollution emissions. The results agree with the findings of recent US studies. Manufacturing employment, urbanization variables, dwelling value, and household income were all significantly related to pollution emissions. These relationships took the same direction as in most of the US studies. In total, the four variables account for about 63% of the variation in pollution emissions (adjusted R² = 0.626, p <0.0001). Contrary to a hypothesis of environmental inequity, the household income variable displayed a positive relationship with pollution emissions. A conceptual model of the development process is formulated to explain the positive relationship between pollution emissions and income levels. We conclude the paper with suggestions for future research.
Measurements of urban air quality at monitoring stations in developed countries have frequently involved the criteria gaseous pollutants, particulates, hazardous air pollutants, perceived air quality and relevant meteorological conditions. Large numbers of indicators have therefore been established to quantify emissions, concentrations and environmental and human health impacts of each of these groups of substances. To simplify the data for management, several indicators have been grouped together to form urban air quality indices but the weightings of individual variables is contentious.
In industrialising and developing countries, data may be limited and traditional air pollutant indicators cannot often be constructed. The emphasis therefore has to be placed on the development of policy-relevant indicators, such as Response Indicators that reflect different policy principles for regulating air pollutant emissions. Indices that quantify the air quality management capabilities and capacities at the city level provide further useful decision-relevant tools. Four sets of indices, namely, 1. air quality measurement capacity, 2. data assessment and availability, 3. emissions estimates, and 4. management enabling capabilities, and a composite index to evaluate air quality management capability, were constructed and applied to 80 cities. The indices revealed that management capability varied widely between the cities. In some of the cities, existing national knowledge on urban air quality could have been more effectively used for management.
It was concluded that for effective urban air quality management, a greater emphasis should be given, not just to monitoring and data capture programmes, but to the development of indicators and indices that empower decision-makers to initiate management response strategies. Over-reliance on restricted, predetermined sets of traditional air quality indicators should be avoided.
Underprivileged areas were identified by weighting several census variables that relate to social conditions, by using weights determined by means of a questionnaire sent to one in 10 of the general practitioners in the United Kingdom. The weighted variables were added (after statistical manipulation) to give a score for each of the 9265 electoral wards in England and Wales. Blank ward maps were sent to general practitioners in five family practitioner committee areas and they were asked to shade the wards according to the degree to which the population increased their workload or the pressure on their services. Maps of these same areas were then prepared by using the calculated scores with the cut off points between the worst, the intermediate, and the best areas as on those used by the general practitioners. The two sets of maps were then compared to determine how well the maps that were based on scores agreed with the general practitioners' maps showing their assessment of the variation of workload in their areas. Overall, 6.3% of the wards differed in shading in any way between the two sets of maps. In the three areas where the general practitioners shaded complete wards and did not report having difficulties with shading only 1.2% of the wards differed. It may be possible to use these "underprivileged area" scores to indicate where problems occur for general practitioners and to extend this work to other primary health care workers.
Mortality rates in England and Wales display a persistent regional pattern indicating generally poorer health in the North and West. Some of this is simply a reflection of regional differences in the extent of social deprivation which is known to exert a profound influence on health. Part of the pattern may also be the result of regional differences in urbanization which also affect mortality rates. However, there may be important regional differences over and above these compositional effects. This study attempts to establish the magnitude of such independent regional differences in mortality rates by using the techniques of multi-level modelling. Standardized mortality rates (SMRs) for males and females under 65 for 1989-91 in local authority districts are grouped into categories using the ACORN classification scheme. The Townsend Index is included as a measure of social deprivation. Using a cross-classified multi-level model, it is shown that region accounts for approximately four times more variation in SMRs than is explained by the ACORN classification. Analysis of diagnostic residuals show a clear North-South divide in excess mortality when both regional and socio-economic classification of districts are modelled simultaneously, a possibility allowed for by the use of a multi-level model.
In order to achieve the suicide reduction targets proposed by the U.K. Government's The Health of the Nation document, it is necessary to determine its geographical distribution. This objective is approached using district level data for England and Wales, aggregated for 1989-92. Two techniques are used, and compared. The first is the traditional method of mapping Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMR), expressed as relative risks. The second technique employed is the relatively new method of empirical Bayes estimates (EBE). It is shown that this is a superior measure for an initial investigation of the distribution of suicide, as relative risks for this comparatively rare condition are highly dependent on the population size of the areas studied. Discernible trends of high risk are shown in high population density, urban areas for both sexes, and in economically depressed agricultural, rural areas for men. The effects of economic hardship, unemployment and social disintegration are suggested as contributing to this distribution in an initiatory or exacerbatory capacity, for those suffering from psychiatric vulnerability or existing mental illness. Suggestions are made for more detailed analyses of high risk areas.
This paper considers the health effects of air pollution from three perspectives: historical, statistical, and public policy, and also as depicted by the recent epidemiology, primarily mortality studies. The historical perspectives establish the reality of population-based health effects, and they provide data with which to evaluate more recent evidence. Statistical perspectives imply that, while there is strong evidence that associations between air quality and health persist, many details of these relationships remain obscure, especially as to the existence of concentration thresholds that might define safe exposure levels. Additional major questions include the effects of uncertainties in actual pollution exposures, the degree of prematurity of "excess" deaths, and whether the development of new cases of chronic disease is associated with air pollution. Public policy issues center around interpreting the new epidemiological studies in the light of these uncertainties and the analysis and management of the concomitant health risks.
(Sub) urban air pollution (AP) is one of the most common and important forms of AP. This paper shortly gives some informations about the main sources of AP (mainly car traffic), the essential determinants of AP (emissions, meteorology, ..), the complexity of effluents and emissions (leading to the choice of AP indicators), the notion of exposition, and the recent evolution of environmental concentrations of air pollutants. Important progress were made towards emissions of industrial and heating sources, with a substantial decrease of SO2 and particulates air concentrations; but despite a marked improvement of fuels quality and of unitary vehicles emissions (and a correlated decrease in Pb and CO emissions) car pollution remains important in terms of photo-oxidant air pollution (CO, NOx, COV, O3); the good use of car in urban area must be reconsidered.
A speciated, hourly, and gridded air pollutants emission modeling system (SHEMS) was developed and applied in predicting hourly nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) levels in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA). The primary goal of the SHEMS was to produce a systemized emission inventory for air pollutants including ozone precursors for modeling air quality in urban areas. The SHEMS is principally composed of three parts: (1) a pre-processor to process emission factors, activity levels, and spatial and temporal information using a geographical information system; (2) an emission model for each source type; and (3) a post-processor to produce report and input data for air quality models through database modeling. The source categories in SHEMS are point, area, mobile, natural, and other sources such as fugitive emissions. The emission database produced by SHEMS contains 22 inventoried compounds: sulfur dioxide, NO2, carbon monoxide, and 19 speciated volatile organic compounds. To validate SHEMS, the emission data were tested with the Urban Airshed Model to predict NO2 and O3 concentrations in the SMA during selected episode days in 1994. The results turned out to be reliable in describing temporal variation and spatial distribution of those pollutants.
This study associates levels of exposure to ozone and fine particulate matter in the South Coast Air Basin of California with resident income, race, age, and education. A Regional Human Exposure Model provides the basis for estimating exposure not only on location or residence, but also on mobility within the Basin and time spent in various activities indoors and outdoors. The results are consonant with earlier research in most respects, except that population density is negatively related to exposure. Ethnic minorities and children receive the greatest exposure levels. The highest income group exhibits a strongly negative association with exposure. Copyright 1992 by Oxford University Press.
The aggregate data study design provides an alternative group level analysis to ecological studies in the estimation of individual level health risks. An aggregate model is derived by aggregating a plausible individual level relative rate model within groups, such that population-based disease rates are modelled as functions of individual level covariate data. We apply an aggregate data method to a series of fictitious examples from a review paper by Greenland and Robins which illustrated the problems that can arise when using the results of ecological studies to make inference about individual health risks. We use simulated data based on their examples to demonstrate that the aggregate data approach can address many of the sources of bias that are inherent in typical ecological analyses, even though the limited between-region covariate variation in these examples reduces the efficiency of the aggregate study. The aggregate method has the potential to estimate exposure effects of interest in the presence of non-linearity, confounding at individual and group levels, effect modification, classical measurement error in the exposure and non-differential misclassification in the confounder.
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