Abstract 4345: Environmental determinants for lung cancer mortality among Black men in Berrien County, Michigan: A Multi-media analysis

• Published in: Cancer research (Chicago, Ill.) Ill.), 2020-08, Vol.80 (16_Supplement), p.4345-4345
• Main Authors: Uppala, Padma P. Tadi, Wong, Brian, Berman, Laurel, Caudill, Motria, Cadet, Jean
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0008-5472; 1538-7445
• DOI: 10.1158/1538-7445.AM2020-4345

Environmental risk factors such as air, water, soil pollution, chemical exposures, climate change, and radiation contribute to more than 100 diseases. Understanding the connection of the environment to health is a critical pathway to address health disparities and poor health outcomes in communities. Purpose: This study investigates environmental determinants for lung cancer mortality among Black men in Berrien County, Michigan. Methods: We examined environmental contaminants in the land, air, and water. Environmental data was obtained from toxic release Inventories (TRI) and brownfields from the US EPA's TRI databases, My Environment, Environmental justice SCREEN websites, ATSDR public health assessment information for contaminated sites in Berrien County and ATSDR Toxicological Profiles and ToxFAQs for common environmental contaminants and associated health concerns. We created GIS maps overlaid with all-cause mortality data. Using the TOXMAP database, we generated Environmental Health Toxmaps for cancer mortality in Berrien County and overlaid with TRI facilities. Results: Age-adjusted mortality among black males for all malignant cancers (208.90) and cancer of the lung and bronchus (110.70) were high compared to national data. An important observation from this analysis indicated that cancer of the lung and bronchus was 110.70 among black males and was 60.20 among white males in Benton Harbor. According to the overlaid GIS maps, zip codes surrounding the Benton harbor area seems to have the highest number of contaminated sites and high mortality rates. Benton Harbor in Berrien County had the second-highest level of summer Action Days (10 days) in the state. We reviewed the Action Days reported on the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality website (2019) and found that Benton Harbor typically was in the "top" tier for Action Days for several years. Although health disparities were observed among Black and White males for lung cancer, smoking rates were not elevated among black males as compared to the general population. In conclusion, we suggest that in addition to smoking, environmental, and socioeconomic factors may contribute to high lung cancer rates among Black men in Benton Harbor in Berrien County. Citation Format: Padma P. Tadi Uppala, Brian Wong, Laurel Berman, Motria Caudill, Jean Cadet. Environmental determinants for lung cancer mortality among Black men in Berrien County, Michigan: A Multi-media analysis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of