Environmental racism: associations between poverty, pollution, and pediatric gun violence

Abstract

Background: Firearm injuries are the leading cause of death among children in the United States. Research indicates that increased green spaces can reduce violent crime, but the incident locations of pediatric firearm injuries have not been studied in relation to environmental hazards like air pollution, which disproportionately affects underresourced communities.

Methods: This retrospective, observational cohort study reviewed patients aged 0-18 who presented with firearm injuries at St. Louis Children's Hospital Emergency Department between 2015 and 2021. Groups of city blocks most vulnerable to air pollution ["vulnerable block groups" (VBGs)] were obtained from the St. Louis EcoUrban Assessment Tool and sociodemographic information from each zip code was obtained from the 2021 American Community Survey. Statistical analyses, including Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, Spearman correlation coefficients, and negative binomial regression, were used to examine the relationships between pediatric firearm injuries, VBGs, and sociodemographic factors across 76 zip codes.

Results: 429 pediatric firearm injury victims were identified from 42 incident zip codes, with over 50% occurring in just 6 zip codes. VGB data was available for 76 zip codes. The high firearm incidence zip codes had significantly higher percentages of residents living below the poverty level (22.9% vs. 5%), more Black occupants (90.8% vs. 7%), fewer White occupants (6.4% vs. 81.4%), fewer married households (21.5% vs. 44.1%), and more female-headed households (30.9% vs. 9.3%) compared to the other 70 zip codes. There was a significant positive correlation between the number of firearm injuries and the number of VBGs per zip code (CC 0.80, p < 0.0001). When adjusted for confounders, the correlation remained significant (Spearman partial correlation coefficient = 0.28, p = 0.02), though the rate of firearm injuries per VBG did not (1.02, p = 0.91).

Conclusions: Children in St. Louis living in areas with high levels of poverty and air pollution are at increased risk of firearm injuries, with Black children disproportionately affected. This suggests that environmental racism impacts childhood health and highlights the need for further research into how ecological policies and urban planning can improve the health and safety of minoritized children.

Keywords: Air pollution; Environmental racism; Gun violence; Health disparities; Pediatrics.

Fig. 1

Scatterplot with regression line demonstrating the number of pediatric firearm injuries per vulnerable block group