Woo Bongki, Kravitz-Wirtz Nicole, Sass Victoria, Crowder Kyle, Teixeira Samantha, Takeuchi David T
College of Social Work, University of South Carolina, 1512 Pendleton Street, Columbia, SC, 29208.
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Davis.
Race Soc Probl. 2019 Mar;11(1):60-67. doi: 10.1007/s12552-018-9254-0. Epub 2018 Oct 15.
Race and ethnicity are consequential constructs when it comes to exposure to air pollution. Persistent environmental racial/ethnic inequalities call for attention to identifying the factors that maintain them. We examined associations between racial residential segregation and racial/ethnic inequalities in exposure to three types of air pollutants. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1990-2011), the U.S. Census (1990- 2010), and the Environmental Protection Agency, we tested the independent and joint contributions of race/ethnicity and metropolitan-level residential segregation on individual levels of exposure to air pollution nationwide. We found that racial and ethnic minorities were exposed to significantly higher levels of air pollution compared to Whites. The difference between minorities and Whites in exposure to all three types of air pollution was most pronounced in metropolitan areas with high levels of residential segregation. The environmental inequities observed in this study call for public health and policy initiatives to ameliorate the sources of racial/ethnic gaps in pollution exposure. Given the links between the physical environment and health, addressing such uneven environmental burdens may be a promising way to improve population health and decrease racial/ethnic inequalities therein.
在接触空气污染方面，种族和族裔是重要的概念。持续存在的环境种族/族裔不平等现象需要关注那些维持这些不平等的因素。我们研究了种族居住隔离与接触三种空气污染物的种族/族裔不平等之间的关联。利用收入动态面板研究（1990 - 2011年）、美国人口普查（1990 - 2010年）以及环境保护局的数据，我们测试了种族/族裔和大都市层面居住隔离对全国范围内个人空气污染暴露水平的独立贡献和共同贡献。我们发现，与白人相比，少数种族和族裔接触到的空气污染水平显著更高。在居住隔离程度高的大都市地区，少数族裔和白人在接触所有三种空气污染类型上的差异最为明显。本研究中观察到的环境不平等现象要求采取公共卫生和政策举措，以改善污染暴露方面种族/族裔差距的根源。鉴于自然环境与健康之间的联系，解决这种不均衡的环境负担可能是改善人群健康并减少其中种族/族裔不平等的一个有前景的途径。
