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. 2011 Dec;101 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S238-45.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300119. Epub 2011 Aug 11.

Moving environmental justice indoors: understanding structural influences on residential exposure patterns in low-income communities

Gary Adamkiewicz  1 , Ami R Zota, M Patricia Fabian, Teresa Chahine, Rhona Julien, John D Spengler, Jonathan I Levy
Affiliations

Moving environmental justice indoors: understanding structural influences on residential exposure patterns in low-income communities

Gary Adamkiewicz et al. Am J Public Health. 2011 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: The indoor environment has not been fully incorporated into the environmental justice dialogue. To inform strategies to reduce disparities, we developed a framework to identify the individual and place-based drivers of indoor environment quality.

Methods: We reviewed empirical evidence of socioeconomic disparities in indoor exposures and key determinants of these exposures for air pollutants, lead, allergens, and semivolatile organic compounds. We also used an indoor air quality model applied to multifamily housing to illustrate how nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) and fine particulate matter (PM(2.5)) vary as a function of factors known to be influenced by socioeconomic status.

Results: Indoor concentrations of multiple pollutants are elevated in low-socioeconomic status households. Differences in these exposures are driven by the combined influences of indoor sources, outdoor sources, physical structures, and residential activity patterns. Simulation models confirmed indoor sources' importance in determining indoor NO(2) and PM(2.5) exposures and showed the influence of household-specific determinants.

Conclusions: Both theoretical models and empirical evidence emphasized that disparities in indoor environmental exposure can be significant. Understanding key determinants of multiple indoor exposures can aid in developing policies to reduce these disparities.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Conceptual framework—contributors to indoor environmental exposure.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Contribution of a) indoor (smoking, cooking) and outdoor sources to simulated PM2.5 concentrations, across 162 scenarios in CONTAM and (b) indoor PM2.5 between the lowest and highest quartile for categories of air exchange rate, smoking, and outdoor air pollution. Note. PM2.5 = fine particulate matter.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Contribution of a) indoor (smoking, cooking) and outdoor sources to simulated PM2.5 concentrations, across 162 scenarios in CONTAM and (b) indoor PM2.5 between the lowest and highest quartile for categories of air exchange rate, smoking, and outdoor air pollution. Note. PM2.5 = fine particulate matter.
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