Work

Health inequities in environmental justice communities: relevant indicators to reflect a variety of health threats

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: BackgroundResidents of environmental justice (EJ) communities often suffer significant health inequities due to pollutants and to adverse social conditions.However, methodologies for assessing such communities seldom account for both kinds of factors.While traditional environmental health risk assessments use single-pollutant, single-source measures of chronic risk alone, this project develops a technique for assessing "overall risk burden" in EJ communities.Cumulative risks from aggregate (that is, multi-agent, multi-pathway, multi-source, over time) exposures are combined with an index representing a wide range of social determinants of health.The work is being piloted in West Port Arthur, Texas, an EJ community flanked by petrochemical plants and a seaport, and characterized by poverty and disadvantage.

Source: International Journal for Equity in Health

DOI: 10.1186/1475-9276-11-s1-a7

Authors: John Prochaska, Hilton Kelley, Stephen Linder, Ken Sexton, John Sullivan, Lexi Bambas Nolen

Institutions: The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, The University of Texas System

Language: English

Topic: Environmental Justice and Health Disparities

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Reduced inequalities, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,690