Spatial disparity in the distribution of superfund sites in South Carolina: an ecological study

Environmental Health

Research

Laura Dalemarre¹  Ashok Samantapudi²  Hongmei Zhang²  Edith Williams³  LaShanta Rice⁴  Chengsheng Jiang⁵  Kristen Burwell-Naney⁵  Sacoby Wilson⁵ 

[1] Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health (CEEJH), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA;Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA;Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA;Institute for Partnerships to Eliminate Health Disparities, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA;Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA;Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health (MIAEH), School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA;Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health (CEEJH), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA;

关键词: Geographic Information System;    Census Tract;    High School Education;    United States Environmental Protection Agency;    Environmental Justice;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1476-069X-12-96

 received in 2013-05-10, accepted in 2013-10-29,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAccording to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Superfund is a federal government program implemented to clean up uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Twenty-six sites in South Carolina (SC) have been included on the National Priorities List (NPL), which has serious human health and environmental implications. The purpose of this study was to assess spatial disparities in the distribution of Superfund sites in SC.MethodsThe 2000 US census tract and block level data were used to generate population characteristics, which included race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), education, home ownership, and home built before 1950. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to map Superfund facilities and develop choropleth maps based on the aforementioned sociodemographic variables. Spatial methods, including mean and median distance analysis, buffer analysis, and spatial approximation were employed to characterize burden disparities. Regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between the number of Superfund facilities and population characteristics.ResultsSpatial coincidence results showed that of the 29.5% of Blacks living in SC, 55.9% live in Superfund host census tracts. Among all populations in SC living below poverty (14.2%), 57.2% were located in Superfund host census tracts. Buffer analyses results (0.5mi, 1.0mi, 5.0mi, 0.5km, 1.0km, and 5.0km) showed a higher percentage of Whites compared to Blacks hosting a Superfund facility. Conversely, a slightly higher percentage of Blacks hosted (30.2%) a Superfund facility than those not hosting (28.8%) while their White counterparts had more equivalent values (66.7% and 67.8%, respectively). Regression analyses in the reduced model (Adj. R2 = 0.038) only explained a small percentage of the variance. In addition, the mean distance for percent of Blacks in the 90th percentile for Superfund facilities was 0.48mi.ConclusionBurden disparities exist in the distribution of Superfund facilities in SC at the block and census tract levels across varying levels of demographic composition for race/ethnicity and SES.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Burwell-Naney et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013