1. An environmental justice analysis of air pollution emissions in the United States from 1970 to 2010
- Author
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Nunez, Yanelli, Benavides, Jaime, Shearston, Jenni A, Krieger, Elena M, Daouda, Misbath, Henneman, Lucas RF, McDuffie, Erin E, Goldsmith, Jeff, Casey, Joan A, and Kioumourtzoglou, Marianthi-Anna
- Subjects
Earth Sciences ,Atmospheric Sciences ,Environmental Sciences ,Health Disparities - Abstract
Over the last decades, air pollution emissions have decreased substantially; however, inequities in air pollution persist. We evaluate county-level racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in emissions changes from six air pollution source sectors (industry [SO2], energy [SO2, NOx], agriculture [NH3], commercial [NOx], residential [particulate organic carbon], and on-road transportation [NOx]) in the contiguous United States during the 40 years following the Clean Air Act (CAA) enactment (1970-2010). We calculate relative emission changes and examine the differential changes given county demographics using hierarchical nested models. The results show racial/ethnic disparities, particularly in the industry and energy generation source sectors. We also find that median family income is a driver of variation in relative emissions changes in all sectors-counties with median family income >$75 K vs. less generally experience larger relative declines in industry, energy, transportation, residential, and commercial-related emissions. Emissions from most air pollution source sectors have, on a national level, decreased following the United States CAA. In this work, we show that the relative reductions in emissions varied across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups.
- Published
- 2024