Disproportionate Proximity to Environmental Health Hazards: Methods, Models, and Measurement

We sought to provide a historical overview of methods, models, and data used in the environmental justice (EJ) research literature to measure proximity to environmental hazards and potential exposure to their adverse health effects. We explored how the assessment of disproportionate proximity and ex...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of public health (1971) 2011-12, Vol.101 (S1), p.S27-S36
Main Authors: CHAKRABORTY, Jayajit, MAANTAY, Juliana A, BRENDER, Jean D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Boundaries
Censuses
Citation indexes
Environment. Living conditions
Environmental Exposure - analysis
Environmental Health
Environmental justice
General aspects
Geographic information systems
Hazardous Substances - analysis
Humans
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Models, Biological
Pollutants
Public health
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Race
Research methodology
Social Justice
Sociodemographics
Socioeconomic Factors
Statistical methods
Studies
Towards Environmental Justice and Health Equity
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Summary:We sought to provide a historical overview of methods, models, and data used in the environmental justice (EJ) research literature to measure proximity to environmental hazards and potential exposure to their adverse health effects. We explored how the assessment of disproportionate proximity and exposure has evolved from comparing the prevalence of minority or low-income residents in geographic entities hosting pollution sources and discrete buffer zones to more refined techniques that use continuous distances, pollutant fate-and-transport models, and estimates of health risk from toxic exposure. We also reviewed analytical techniques used to determine the characteristics of people residing in areas potentially exposed to environmental hazards and emerging geostatistical techniques that are more appropriate for EJ analysis than conventional statistical methods. We concluded by providing several recommendations regarding future research and data needs for EJ assessment that would lead to more reliable results and policy solutions.
ISSN:0090-0036
1541-0048
DOI:10.2105/AJPH.2010.300109