Environmental health, racial/ethnic health-disparity, and climate impacts of freight transport in the United States

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution exposure is the largest environmental health risk factor in the United States. Here, we link PM2.5exposure to the human activities responsible for PM2.5pollution. We use these results to explore “pollution inequity”: the difference between the environmental health damage caused by a racial–ethnic group and the damage that group experiences. We show that, in the United States, PM2.5exposure is disproportionately caused by consumption of goods and services mainly by the non-Hispanic white majority, but disproportionately inhaled by black and Hispanic minorities. On average, non-Hispanic whites experience a “pollution advantage”: They experience ∼17% less air pollution exposure than is caused by their consumption. Blacks and Hispanics on average bear a “pollution burden” of 56% and 63% excess exposure, respectively, relative to the exposure caused by their consumption. The total disparity is caused as much by how much people consume as by how much pollution they breathe. Differences in the types of goods and services consumed by each group are less important. PM2.5exposures declined ∼50% during 2002–2015 for all three racial–ethnic groups, but pollution inequity has remained high.

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1488-P: Closing the Racial/Ethnic Disparity Gap in Kidney Failure from Diabetes in the United States, 2000-2016

Diabetes ◽

10.2337/db20-1488-p ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 69 (Supplement 1) ◽

pp. 1488-P

Author(s):

NILKA RIOS BURROWS ◽

YAN ZHANG ◽

ISRAEL A. HORA ◽

MEDA E. PAVKOV ◽

GIUSEPPINA IMPERATORE

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Kidney Failure ◽

The United States ◽

Ethnic Disparity ◽

Racial Ethnic

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The Politics of US Latino Literature and American Realism

The Oxford Handbook of American Literary Realism ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190642891.013.14 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 231-248

Author(s):

Ramón J. Guerra

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Social Justice ◽

Mexican Revolution ◽

The United States ◽

Spanish American ◽

Spanish American War ◽

Men And Women ◽

Latino Literature ◽

The Common ◽

Racial Ethnic

This chapter examines the development of Latino literature in the United States during the time when realism emerged as a dominant aesthetic representation. Beginning with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) and including the migrations resulting from the Spanish-American War (1898) and the Mexican Revolution (1910), Latinos in the United States began to realistically craft an identity served by a sense of displacement. Latinos living in the United States as a result of migration or exile were concerned with similar issues, including but not limited to their predominant status as working-class, loss of homeland and culture, social justice, and racial/ethnic profiling or discrimination. The literature produced during the latter part of the nineteenth century by some Latinos began to merge the influence of romantic style with a more socially conscious manner to reproduce the lives of ordinary men and women, draw out the specifics of their existence, characterize their dialects, and connect larger issues to the concerns of the common man, among other realist techniques.

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IMPROVING HYPERTENSION CONTROL IN THE UNITED STATES: UNDERSTANDING RACIAL/ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN THE BLOOD PRESSURE CASCADE

Journal of the American College of Cardiology ◽

10.1016/s0735-1097(21)02833-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 77 (18) ◽

pp. 1475

Author(s):

Rahul Aggarwal ◽

Nicholas Chiu ◽

Rishi Wadhera ◽

Andrew Moran ◽

Changyu Shen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Blood Pressure ◽

Ethnic Differences ◽

The United States ◽

Hypertension Control ◽

Racial Ethnic

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PM2.5 polluters disproportionately and systemically affect people of color in the United States

Science Advances ◽

10.1126/sciadv.abf4491 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (18) ◽

pp. eabf4491

Author(s):

Christopher W. Tessum ◽

David A. Paolella ◽

Sarah E. Chambliss ◽

Joshua S. Apte ◽

Jason D. Hill ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Rural Areas ◽

The United States ◽

People Of Color ◽

Emission Sources ◽

Particulate Air Pollution ◽

Fine Particulate ◽

Exposure Levels ◽

Urban And Rural Areas ◽

Racial Ethnic

Racial-ethnic minorities in the United States are exposed to disproportionately high levels of ambient fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5), the largest environmental cause of human mortality. However, it is unknown which emission sources drive this disparity and whether differences exist by emission sector, geography, or demographics. Quantifying the PM2.5 exposure caused by each emitter type, we show that nearly all major emission categories—consistently across states, urban and rural areas, income levels, and exposure levels—contribute to the systemic PM2.5 exposure disparity experienced by people of color. We identify the most inequitable emission source types by state and city, thereby highlighting potential opportunities for addressing this persistent environmental inequity.

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Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Years of Potential Life Lost Attributable to COVID-19 in the United States: An Analysis of 45 States and the District of Columbia

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18062921 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (6) ◽

pp. 2921

Author(s):

Jay J. Xu ◽

Jarvis T. Chen ◽

Thomas R. Belin ◽

Ronald S. Brookmeyer ◽

Marc A. Suchard ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

District Of Columbia ◽

Ethnic Disparities ◽

The United States ◽

Attributable Mortality ◽

Race Ethnicity ◽

Using Data ◽

Rate Ratios ◽

Degree Of Association ◽

Racial Ethnic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in the United States has disproportionately impacted communities of color across the country. Focusing on COVID-19-attributable mortality, we expand upon a national comparative analysis of years of potential life lost (YPLL) attributable to COVID-19 by race/ethnicity (Bassett et al., 2020), estimating percentages of total YPLL for non-Hispanic Whites, non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics, non-Hispanic Asians, and non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Natives, contrasting them with their respective percent population shares, as well as age-adjusted YPLL rate ratios—anchoring comparisons to non-Hispanic Whites—in each of 45 states and the District of Columbia using data from the National Center for Health Statistics as of 30 December 2020. Using a novel Monte Carlo simulation procedure to perform estimation, our results reveal substantial racial/ethnic disparities in COVID-19-attributable YPLL across states, with a prevailing pattern of non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics experiencing disproportionately high and non-Hispanic Whites experiencing disproportionately low COVID-19-attributable YPLL. Furthermore, estimated disparities are generally more pronounced when measuring mortality in terms of YPLL compared to death counts, reflecting the greater intensity of the disparities at younger ages. We also find substantial state-to-state variability in the magnitudes of the estimated racial/ethnic disparities, suggesting that they are driven in large part by social determinants of health whose degree of association with race/ethnicity varies by state.

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Early Responses to Climate Change: An Analysis of Seven U.S. State and Local Climate Adaptation Planning Initiatives

Weather Climate and Society ◽

10.1175/2010wcas1047.1 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 237-248 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Kyle Andrew Poyar ◽

Nancy Beller-Simms

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Local Governments ◽

Planning Process ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

The United States ◽

Climate Impact ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

Adaptation Planning ◽

State And Local ◽

Climate Adaptation Planning

Abstract State and local governments in the United States manage a wide array of natural and human resources that are particularly sensitive to climate variability and change. Recent revelations of the extent of the current and potential climate impact in this realm such as with the quality of water, the structure of the coasts, and the potential and witnessed impact on the built infrastructure give these political authorities impetus to minimize their vulnerability and plan for the future. In fact, a growing number of subnational government bodies in the United States have initiated climate adaptation planning efforts; these initiatives emphasize an array of climate impacts, but at different scales, scopes, and levels of sophistication. Meanwhile, the current body of climate adaptation literature has not taken a comprehensive look at these plans nor have they questioned what prompts local adaptation planning, at what scope and scale action is being taken, or what prioritizes certain policy responses over others. This paper presents a case-based analysis of seven urban climate adaptation planning initiatives, drawing from a review of publicly available planning documents and interviews with stakeholders directly involved in the planning process to provide a preliminary understanding of these issues. The paper also offers insight into the state of implementation of adaptation strategies, highlighting the role of low upfront costs and cobenefits with issues already on the local agenda in prompting anticipatory adaptation.

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