Toxic chemical wastes and the coincidence of carcinogenic mortality in Texas

Abstract

Environmental‐justice proponents have argued that demographic factors unevenly affect the location of manufacturing and waste facilities and, thus, differences in exposure risks and outcomes. In this paper, statistical relationships among demographic factors, toxic chemical wastes released by Texas manufacturing facilities who participated in the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory program in 1990, and carcinogenic causes of death were examined at the county level of analysis. Three types of carcinogenic death rates were regressed against the following county‐level variables: percent of the population under the age of 14, percent of the population 65 years of age and older, percent of population female in the childbearing ages of 15 to 44 years, percent Black population, percent Hispanic population, population density, percent of population employed in manufacturing industries, and per capita income. Results indicated that the elderly and young proportions of county population and the population density were the most important variables in explaining cancer mortality rates. Although some support was found for racially based correlations with the location of Toxics Release Inventory facilities and carcinogenic releases in the bivariate analysis, very little evidence was found among demographic and industrial factors that explained differences in cancer mortality rates. Implications of the findings for future research are discussed.

Keywords:

• cancer
• manufacturers
• mortality
• Toxics Release Inventory
• toxic wastes