Extreme weather events are becoming more severe due to climate change, increasing the risk of contaminant releases from hazardous sites disproportionately located in low-income communities of color. ...We evaluated contaminant releases during Hurricanes Rita, Ike, and Harvey in Texas and used regression models to estimate associations between neighborhood racial/ethnic composition and residential proximity to hurricane-related contaminant releases. Two-to-three times as many excess releases were reported during hurricanes compared to business-as-usual periods. Petrochemical manufacturing and refineries were responsible for most air emissions events. Multivariable models revealed sociodemographic disparities in likelihood of releases; compared to neighborhoods near regulated facilities without a release, a one-percent increase in Hispanic residents was associated with a 5 and 10% increase in the likelihood of an air emissions event downwind and within 2 km during Hurricanes Rita and Ike (odds ratio and 95% credible interval= 1.05 1.00, 1.13, combined model) and Harvey (1.10 1.00, 1.23), respectively. Higher percentages of renters (1.07 1.03, 1.11, combined Rita and Ike model) and rates of poverty (1.06 1.01, 1.12, Harvey model) were associated with a higher likelihood of a release to land or water, while the percentage of Black residents (0.94 0.89, 1.00, Harvey model) was associated with a slightly lower likelihood. Population density was consistently associated with a decreased likelihood of a contaminant release to air, land, or water. Our findings highlight social inequalities in the risks posed by natural-technological disasters that disproportionately impact Hispanic, renter, low-income, and rural populations.Extreme weather events are becoming more severe due to climate change, increasing the risk of contaminant releases from hazardous sites disproportionately located in low-income communities of color. We evaluated contaminant releases during Hurricanes Rita, Ike, and Harvey in Texas and used regression models to estimate associations between neighborhood racial/ethnic composition and residential proximity to hurricane-related contaminant releases. Two-to-three times as many excess releases were reported during hurricanes compared to business-as-usual periods. Petrochemical manufacturing and refineries were responsible for most air emissions events. Multivariable models revealed sociodemographic disparities in likelihood of releases; compared to neighborhoods near regulated facilities without a release, a one-percent increase in Hispanic residents was associated with a 5 and 10% increase in the likelihood of an air emissions event downwind and within 2 km during Hurricanes Rita and Ike (odds ratio and 95% credible interval= 1.05 1.00, 1.13, combined model) and Harvey (1.10 1.00, 1.23), respectively. Higher percentages of renters (1.07 1.03, 1.11, combined Rita and Ike model) and rates of poverty (1.06 1.01, 1.12, Harvey model) were associated with a higher likelihood of a release to land or water, while the percentage of Black residents (0.94 0.89, 1.00, Harvey model) was associated with a slightly lower likelihood. Population density was consistently associated with a decreased likelihood of a contaminant release to air, land, or water. Our findings highlight social inequalities in the risks posed by natural-technological disasters that disproportionately impact Hispanic, renter, low-income, and rural populations.
Purpose of Review
Climate change is causing warming over most parts of the USA and more extreme weather events. The health impacts of these changes are not experienced equally. We synthesize the ...recent evidence that climatic changes linked to global warming are having a disparate impact on the health of people of color, including children.
Recent Findings
Multiple studies of heat, extreme cold, hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires find evidence that people of color, including Black, Latinx, Native American, Pacific Islander, and Asian communities are at higher risk of climate-related health impacts than Whites, although this is not always the case. Studies of adults have found evidence of racial disparities related to climatic changes with respect to mortality, respiratory and cardiovascular disease, mental health, and heat-related illness. Children are particularly vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change, and infants and children of color have experienced adverse perinatal outcomes, occupational heat stress, and increases in emergency department visits associated with extreme weather.
Summary
The evidence strongly suggests climate change is an environmental injustice that is likely to exacerbate existing racial disparities across a broad range of health outcomes.
To evaluate the potential for drinking water contamination in Los Angeles (LA) County, California, based on the proximity of supply wells to oil and gas wells, and characterize risk with respect to ...race/ethnicity and measures of structural racism.
We identified at-risk community water systems (CWSs) as those with supply wells within 1 kilometer of an oil or gas well. We characterized sociodemographics of the populations served by each CWS by using the 2013-2017 American Community Survey. We estimated the degree of redlining in each CWS service area by using 1930s Home Owners' Loan Corporation security maps, and characterized segregation by using the Index of Concentration at the Extremes. Multivariable regression models estimated associations between these variables and CWS contamination risk.
A quarter of LA County CWSs serving more than 7 million residents have supply wells within 1 kilometer of an oil or gas well. Higher percentages of Hispanic, Black, and Asian/Pacific Islander residents and a greater degree of redlining and residential segregation were associated with higher contamination risk.
Redlining and segregation predict drinking water contamination risks from oil development in LA County, with people of color at greater risk. (
2023;113(11):1191-1200. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307374).
Abstract Health impact assessments have estimated substantial health co-benefits of climate change mitigation strategies due to reductions in air pollution in the US; however, few studies have ...considered children’s health impacts and related equity implications. We estimated the potential health co-benefits to children related to improved air quality associated with various emissions cap and investment scenarios for the transportation sector in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic US proposed under the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI). We modeled changes in ambient fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide between 2022 and 2032 associated with on-road transportation sector emissions under nine hypothetical carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions cap and investment scenarios proposed under TCI using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model version 5.2. We estimated potential health co-benefits for adverse birth and pediatric respiratory and neurodevelopmental outcomes using an expanded version of the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program, known as BenMAPR. We also examined impacts on pediatric asthma exacerbations across racial/ethnic groups. We found that health benefits to children increased as the CO 2 emission caps became more ambitious. The combination of the highest emissions cap (25%) and the investment scenario which prioritized public transit improvement (Diversified strategy) conferred the greatest children’s health benefits for the majority of health outcomes considered, resulting in approximately $82 million per year in economic savings. Assessment of the distribution of avoided pediatric asthma exacerbations showed benefits across all racial and ethnic groups, with a slightly greater reduction in cases for non-White populations. Decarbonization policies in the transportation sector in the Eastern US have the potential to provide important air quality and pediatric health co-benefits.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall in August 2017 and resulted in catastrophic flooding in Houston, Texas. Prior studies of hurricanes and preterm birth have found conflicting results. We tested the ...hypotheses that exposure to Hurricane Harvey was associated with a higher risk of spontaneous pre- and early-term birth and assessed vulnerable subpopulations.
We conducted a retrospective study of singleton births using administrative birth records in the nine-county greater Houston area from 2015 to 2019. We estimated the likelihood of pre- and early-term births using logistic regression, comparing births occurring during or within 1, 2, or 4 weeks of Hurricane Harvey to unexposed reference periods encompassing the same dates 2 years prior and after. Stratified models assessed effect modification by degree of flooding, birth parent age, high- vs. low-risk pregnancy, race/ethnicity, and prenatal care.
Among 15,564 births, we found no association between exposure to Hurricane Harvey and spontaneous preterm birth within 1 week adjusted (odds ratio OR, 1.06; 95% confidence interval CI = 0.91, 1.25) but a 14% higher odds of spontaneous early-term birth (OR, 1.14; 95% CI = 1.04, 1.25). The odds of early-term birth were even higher in neighborhoods with severe flooding (OR, 1.21; 95% CI = 1.05, 1.38), segregated neighborhoods (OR, 1.23; 95% CI = 1.03, 1.47), and among foreign-born Hispanics (OR, 1.21; 95% CI = 1.04, 1.53) and pregnant people receiving no prenatal care (OR, 1.37; 95% CI = 1.03, 1.82). Effect estimates were attenuated or null when considering 2-week or 4-week lags to define exposure.
Hurricane Harvey was associated with higher odds of spontaneous early-term birth up to 1 week later, especially among socially marginalized populations.
