Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Dec;101 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S246-54.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300174. Epub 2011 Aug 11.

Skewed riskscapes and gentrified inequities: environmental exposure disparities in Seattle, Washington

Troy D Abel  1 , Jonah White
Affiliations

Skewed riskscapes and gentrified inequities: environmental exposure disparities in Seattle, Washington

Troy D Abel et al. Am J Public Health. 2011 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: Few studies have considered the sociohistorical intersection of environmental injustice and gentrification; a gap addressed by this case study of Seattle, Washington. This study explored the advantages of integrating air toxic risk screening with gentrification research to enhance proximity and health equity analysis methodologies. It was hypothesized that Seattle's industrial air toxic exposure risk was unevenly dispersed, that gentrification stratified the city's neighborhoods, and that the inequities of both converged.

Methods: Spatial characterizations of air toxic pollution risk exposures from 1990 to 2007 were combined with longitudinal cluster analysis of census block groups in Seattle, Washington, from 1990 to 2000.

Results: A cluster of air toxic exposure inequality and socioeconomic inequity converged in 1 area of south central Seattle. Minority and working class residents were more concentrated in the same neighborhoods near Seattle's worst industrial pollution risks.

Conclusions: Not all pollution was distributed equally in a dynamic urban landscape. Using techniques to examine skewed riskscapes and socioeconomic urban geographies provided a foundation for future research on the connections among environmental health hazard sources, socially vulnerable neighborhoods, and health inequity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Toxics release inventory (TRI) facility risk characterizations and geographic clusters in (a) 1990 and (b) 2000. Source: Environmental Protection Agency's Risk Screening Environmental Indicators Model (Version 2.3); Census CD 1990 Long Form in 2000 Boundaries. US Census 2000.,,
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Toxics release inventory (TRI) facility risk characterizations and gentrification areas in (a) 2007 and (b) 1990–2007. Source: Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) TRI Database; EPA's Envirofacts Database; EPA's Risk Screening Environmental Indicators Model (Version 2.3); Census CD 1990 Long Form in 2000 Boundaries; US Census 2000.,,
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bowen WM, Salling MJ, Haynes KE, Cyran EJ. Toward environmental justice: spatial equity in Ohio and Cleveland. Ann Assoc Am Geogr. 1995;85(4):641–663
    1. Boer JT, Pastor M, Jr, Sadd JL, Snyder LD. Is there environmental racism? The demographics of hazardous waste in Los Angeles County: research on the evironment. Soc Sci Q. 1997;78(4):793–810
    1. Bullard RD. Solid waste sites and the Black Houston community. Sociol Inq. 1983;53(2/3):273–288 - PubMed
    1. Dolinoy DC, Miranda ML. GIS modeling of air toxics releases from TRI-reporting and non-TRI-reporting facilities: impacts for environmental justice. Environ Health Perspect. 2004;112(17):1717–1724 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fisher JB, Kelly M, Romm J. Scales of environmental justice: combining GIS and spatial analysis for air toxics in West Oakland, California. Health Place. 2006;12:701–714 - PubMed

Publication types