Environmental inequality and population exposure to air pollution in Denmark

ABSTRACT

This study examines the environmental inequality, which is associated with air pollution in Denmark, by modelling street concentrations at addresses of all households in Denmark, and correlating the findings on key air quality pollutants to individual household income. The study furthermore analyses the relative distribution of exposure to risks between and within different commuting areas in Denmark. The findings are discussed in relation to comparable findings in the international literature on environmental inequity and inequality of exposure to environmental risks. Overall, the study showed limited environmental inequality and weak correlations between air pollution exposure and household income in Denmark thereby deviating from most findings in the international peer literature that finds strong correlations. Likely explanations for the weak correlations may be found in strict Danish environmental regulation that reduces overall exposure to the population, and Danish laws prohibit building residential areas nearby factories or building factories nearby residential areas as part of zoning in urban planning. Also, a relatively equal income distribution in Denmark, and the relation between the geographic distribution of air pollution and income groups where low-income groups do not systematically live in polluted areas and high-income groups in less polluted areas also add to the explanation.

Key policy highlights

• The first study to examine Danish environmental inequality associated with air pollution exposure at street level.

• Modelled air quality street concentrations at all residential addresses in Denmark.

• Analyses of environmental inequality between and within different commuting areas.

• Very limited environmental inequality was found between air pollution exposure and household income that deviates from most findings in the international peer literature.

• A better knowledge foundation on environmental inequality could inform future policy making to reduce environmental inequality.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental inequality
• air pollution
• income
• commuting areas

Acknowledgement

The study was funded by the Danish Economic Councils (Danish Economic Councils 2019). The study is based on modelled air quality data from Aarhus University. Data on socio-economics was obtained from Statistics Denmark. The conceptual review of social inequality and air pollution originates from and was partly funded by the NordicWelfAir project (Understanding the Link between Air Pollution and Distribution of related Health Impacts and Welfare in the Nordic Countries), funded by NordForsk under the Nordic Programme on Health and Welfare Grant no 75007. The Danish Economic Councils with co-funding from Aarhus University financed the preparation of this journal paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 For further details on models, data, and validation see Jensen et al. (2017). The air quality map of the data is available on a WebGIS platform (http://luftenpaadinvej.au.dk) and is named Air Quality at Your Street and is developed by Aarhus University.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by NordForsk: [Grant Number 75007]; Danish Economic Councils: [Grant Number 2019].