EXPLORING ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE IN EXPOSURE TO AIRBORNE LEAD RELEASED FROM INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES IN KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT

Exposure to lead remains a critical public health concern due to its toxic nature and widespread distribution in the environment. Limited research has investigated the risks of lead emissions to the environment by many operating industrial facilities. Using geospatial analysis and multiple regression methods, this article examines racial and class inequalities in proximity to industrial facilities and the concomitant lead exposure. We observe significant positive associations between the proportion of Black residents in census tracts and proximity to lead-emitting facilities and lead exposure after adjusting for other socioeconomic factors. Likewise, median household income was negatively associated with proximity to lead-emitting facilities. Moreover, Black residents and the below-poverty group had larger mean population-weighted lead exposures than white and the above-poverty group respectively. The findings of this study provided further evidence supporting the environmental injustice literature and can inform policies to reduce ambient lead releases from industrial facilities and eliminate health disparities.

Keywords::

• environmental injustice
• toxic release inventory
• Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators Geographic Microdata
• proximity
• lead exposure

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

All the data used in the study are obtained from publicly available sources including the U.S. Census Bureau and the EPA.