Cancer risk from air toxics in relation to neighborhood isolation and sociodemographic characteristics: A spatial analysis of the St. Louis metropolitan area, USA
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Abstract
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<h5 class="title" id="d349245e141">Background:</h5>
<p id="P3">A growing body of research has examined relationships between neighborhood
characteristics
and exposure to air toxics in the United States. However, a limited number of studies
have addressed neighborhood isolation, a measure of spatial segregation. We investigated
the spatial distribution of carcinogenic air toxics in the St. Louis metropolitan
area and tested the hypothesis that neighborhood isolation and sociodemographic characteristics
are associated with exposure to carcinogenic air toxics.
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<h5 class="title" id="d349245e146">Methods:</h5>
<p id="P4">We obtained lifetime air toxics cancer risk data from the United States
Environmental
Protection Agency’s National Air Toxic Assessment and sociodemographic data from the
American Community Survey. We used geographic information systems to identify statistically
significant clusters of census tracts with elevated all-site cancer risk due to air
toxics in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Relative Risks (RR) were estimated for
the association between neighborhood characteristics and air toxic hot spots. Using
a local spatial isolation index to evaluate residential segregation, we also evaluated
the association between neighborhood racial and economic isolation and air toxic hot
spots.
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<h5 class="title" id="d349245e151">Results:</h5>
<p id="P5">Approximately 14% (85 of the 615) of census tracts had elevated cancer
risk due to
air toxics (p < 0.01). These air toxic hot spots were independently associated
with
neighborhoods with high levels of poverty and unemployment and low levels of education.
Census tracts with the highest levels of both racial isolation of Blacks and economic
isolation of poverty were more likely to be located in air toxic hotspots than those
with low combined racial and economic isolation (RR = 5.34; 95% CI = 3.10–9.22).
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<h5 class="title" id="d349245e156">Conclusions:</h5>
<p id="P6">These findings provide strong evidence of unequal distribution of carcinogenic
air
toxics in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Study results may be used to inform public
health efforts to eliminate sociodemographic inequalities in exposure to air pollutants.
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