Environmental Inequality: Fact or Fiction?

Abstract

A growing body of literature examines whether the poor, working class, and people of color are disproportionately likely to live in environmentally hazardous neighborhoods, with mixed results. Some researchers suggest that methodological weaknesses are to blame for inconsistent findings. In order to address these concerns, we use individual-level data from the 1995 Community, Crime, and Health Survey (Ross and Britt, co-PIs) linked with 1990 U.S. Census data and 1995 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data. Using these data we are able to test whether individual characteristics are related to hazard exposure, as population characteristics have been in many previous studies. We also examine whether patterns of environmental inequality that exist in urban areas hold up in suburban and rural areas, using multiple measures of environmental hazards. Being Hispanic and family income are more consistent predictors of waste exposure than race, although race also matters. While the impacts of individual’s race and family income are explained by neighborhoods characteristics, the association between being Hispanic and waste exposure is not. We find less inequality in the distribution of waste in metropolitan Chicago than in the rest of Illinois. Income does not explain racial or ethnic inequality.

Van Willigen, M. M., Edwards, B. and Lewis, S. M. (2007, Aug) "Environmental Inequality: Fact or Fiction?" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, TBA, New York, New York City Online <PDF> Retrieved 2008-07-18 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p183865_index.html