Data-Quality Assessment Signals Toxic-Site Safety Threats and Environmental Injustices
| Autor: | Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Andrew M. Biondo |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
volatile organic compound
Health Toxicology and Mutagenesis lcsh:Medicine 010501 environmental sciences data-quality analysis 01 natural sciences Representativeness heuristic Article Injustice 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Hazardous waste Agency (sociology) CBRE/Trammell Crow pollution 030212 general & internal medicine environmental justice toxin Environmental planning 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Environmental justice lcsh:R Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health hazardous waste Harm Data quality Redevelopment vapor intrusion trichloroethylene (TCE) Business |
| Zdroj: | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Volume 18 Issue 4 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 2012, p 2012 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 1660-4601 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/ijerph18042012 |
| Popis: | Most hazardous-waste sites are located in urban areas populated by disproportionate numbers of children, minorities, and poor people who, as a result, face more severe pollution threats and environmental-health inequalities. Partly to address this harm, in 2017 the United Nations unanimously endorsed the New Urban Agenda, which includes redeveloping urban-infill-toxic-waste sites. However, no systematic, independent analyses assess the public-health adequacy of such hazardous-facility redevelopments. Our objective is to provide a preliminary data-quality assessment (PDQA) of urban-infill-toxic-site testing, conducted by private redevelopers, including whether it adequately addresses pollution threats. To this end, we used two qualitative, weight-of-evidence methods. Method 1 employs nine criteria to select assessments for PDQA and help control for confounders. To conduct PDQA, Method 2 uses three US Environmental Protection Agency standards—the temporal, geographical, and technological representativeness of sampling. Our Method 1 results reveal four current toxic-site assessments (by CBRE/Trammell Crow, the world’s largest commercial developer) at all of these sites the main risk drivers are solvents, volatile organic compounds, including trichloroethylene. Our Method 2 results indicate that all four assessments violate most PDQA standards and systematically underestimate health risk. These results reveal environmental injustice, disproportionate health threats to children/minorities/poor people at all four sites. Although preliminary, our conclusion is that alleviating harm and environmental-health inequalities posed by urban-infill-toxic-site pollution may require improving both the testing/cleanup/redevelopment requirements of the New Urban Agenda and the regulatory oversight of assessment and remediation performed by private redevelopers. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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