scholarly journals Who Could Not Avoid Exposure to High Levels of Residence-Based Pollution by Daily Mobility? Evidence of Air Pollution Exposure from the Perspective of the Neighborhood Effect Averaging Problem (NEAP)

Author(s):  
Xinlin Ma ◽  
Xijing Li ◽  
Mei-Po Kwan ◽  
Yanwei Chai

It has been widely acknowledged that air pollution has a considerable adverse impact on people’s health. Disadvantaged groups such as low-income people are often found to experience greater negative effects of environmental pollution. Thus, improving the accuracy of air pollution exposure assessment might be essential to policy-making. Recently, the neighborhood effect averaging problem (NEAP) has been identified as a specific form of possible bias when assessing individual exposure to air pollution and its health impacts. In this paper, we assessed the real-time air pollution exposure and residential-based exposure of 106 participants in a high-pollution community in Beijing, China. The study found that: (1) there are significant differences between the two assessments; (2) most participants experienced the NEAP and could lower their exposure by their daily mobility; (3) three vulnerable groups with low daily mobility and could not avoid the high pollution in their residential neighborhoods were identified as exceptions to this: low-income people who have low levels of daily mobility and limited travel outside their residential neighborhoods, blue-collar workers who spend long hours at low-end workplaces, and elderly people who face many household constraints. Public policies thus need to focus on the hidden environmental injustice revealed by the NEAP in order to improve the well-being of these environmentally vulnerable groups.

Author(s):  
Mei-Po Kwan

Ignoring people’s daily mobility and exposures to nonresidential contexts may lead to erroneous results in epidemiological studies of people’s exposures to and the health impact of environmental factors. This paper identifies and describes a phenomenon called neighborhood effect averaging, which may significantly confound the neighborhood effect as a result of such neglect when examining the health impact of mobility-dependent exposures (e.g., air pollution). Several recent studies that provide strong evidence for the neighborhood effect averaging problem (NEAP) are discussed. The paper concludes that, due to the observed attenuation of the neighborhood effect associated with people’s daily mobility, increasing the mobility of those who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods may be helpful for improving their health outcomes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 141 ◽  
pp. 105772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaonan Yu ◽  
Cesunica Ivey ◽  
Zhijiong Huang ◽  
Sashikanth Gurram ◽  
Vijayaraghavan Sivaraman ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rema Hanna ◽  
Bridget Hoffmann ◽  
Paulina Oliva ◽  
Jake Schneider

We conduct a randomized controlled trial in Mexico City to determine willingness to pay (WTP) for SMS air quality alerts and to study the effects of air quality alerts, reminders, and a reusable N95 mask on air pollution information and avoidance behavior. At baseline, we elicit WTP for the alerts service after revealing whether the household will receive an N95 mask and participant compensation, but before revealing whether they will receive alert or reminder services. While we observe no significant impact of mask provision on WTP, higher compensation increases WTP, suggesting a possible cash-on-hand constraint. The perception of high pollution days prior to the survey is positively correlated with WTP, but the presence of actual high pollution days is not correlated with WTP. Follow-up survey data demonstrate that the alerts treatment increases reporting of receiving air pollution information via SMS, a high pollution day in the past week, and staying indoors on the most recent perceived high pollution day. However, we observe no significant effect on the ability to correctly identify which specific days had high pollution. Similarly, households that received an N95 mask are more likely to report utilizing a mask with filter in the past two weeks, but we observe no effect on using a filter mask on the specific days with high particulate matter. Although we nd that air quality alerts increased the salience of air quality and avoidance behavior, these results illustrate the difficulty that information treatments face in overcoming perceptions to effectively reduce exposure to air pollution.


2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 148-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Caron ◽  
A. Liu

Objective This descriptive study compares rates of high psychological distress and mental disorders between low-income and non-low-income populations in Canada. Methods Data were collected through the Canadian Community Health Survey – Mental Health and Well-being (CCHS 1.2), which surveyed 36 984 Canadians aged 15 or over; 17.9% (n = 6620) was classified within the low-income population using the Low Income Measure. The K-10 was used to measure psychological distress and the CIDI for assessing mental disorders. Results One out of 5 Canadians reported high psychological distress, and 1 out of 10 reported at least one of the five mental disorders surveyed or substance abuse. Women, single, separated or divorced respondents, non-immigrants and Aboriginal Canadians were more likely to report suffering from psychological distress or from mental disorders and substance abuse. Rates of reported psychological distress and of mental disorders and substance abuse were much higher in low-income populations, and these differences were statistically consistent in most of the sociodemographic strata. Conclusion This study helps determine the vulnerable groups in mental health for which prevention and promotion programs could be designed.


Hypertension ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 384-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie J. Nobles ◽  
Andrew Williams ◽  
Marion Ouidir ◽  
Seth Sherman ◽  
Pauline Mendola

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