A Method to screen U.S. environmental biomonitoring data for race/ethnicity and income-related disparity

Environmental Health

Research

Anna Belova¹  Susan L Greco¹  Lauren E W Olsho²  Anne M Riederer³  Mark A Corrales⁴ 

[1] Abt Associates, 4550 Montgomery Avenue, Suite 800 North, 20814, Bethesda, MD, USA;Abt Associates, 55 Wheeler Street, 02138, Cambridge, MA,, USA;Department of Environmental Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd NE, 30322, Atlanta, GA, USA;Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, 20460, Washington, DC, USA;

关键词: Environmental justice;    Race;    Ethnicity;    Income;    Metals;    Dichlorophenol;    Phthalates;    NHANES;    Biomonitoring;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1476-069X-12-114

 received in 2013-07-23, accepted in 2013-12-04,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundEnvironmental biomonitoring data provide one way to examine race/ethnicity and income-related exposure disparity and identify potential environmental justice concerns.MethodsWe screened U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001–2008 biomonitoring data for 228 chemicals for race/ethnicity and income-related disparity. We defined six subgroups by race/ethnicity—Mexican American, non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white—and income—Low Income: poverty income ratio (PIR) <2, High Income: PIR ≥ 2. We assessed disparity by comparing the central tendency (geometric mean [GM]) of the biomonitoring concentrations of each subgroup to that of the reference subgroup (non-Hispanic white/High Income), adjusting for multiple comparisons using the Holm-Bonferroni procedure.ResultsThere were sufficient data to estimate at least one geometric mean ratio (GMR) for 108 chemicals; 37 had at least one GMR statistically different from one. There was evidence of potential environmental justice concern (GMR significantly >1) for 12 chemicals: cotinine; antimony; lead; thallium; 2,4- and 2,5-dichlorophenol; p,p’-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene; methyl and propyl paraben; and mono-ethyl, mono-isobutyl, and mono-n-butyl phthalate. There was also evidence of GMR significantly <1 for 25 chemicals (of which 17 were polychlorinated biphenyls).ConclusionsAlthough many of our results were consistent with the U.S. literature, findings relevant to environmental justice were novel for dichlorophenols and some metals.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Belova et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013