Environmental inequality and health outcomes over the life course

Abstract

Environmental inequality is a potentially important source of social inequalities in health and other life outcomes. This chapter reviews conceptual and empirical work on the contribution of environmental quality to health disparities, starting from a life course perspective that emphasizes linkages between environmental exposures and inequalities in health and other domains as well as potential long-term effects of in utero and childhood experiences. We summarize evidence on the association between environmental quality and health, paying particular attention to air pollution but also reviewing the roles of noise, extreme heat, and green spaces. We discuss threats to causal identification and summarize quasi-experimental research demonstrating substantial and plausibly causal effects of air pollution on health in high-income countries. We conclude with a review of research on social inequalities in residential environmental conditions and highlight the importance of spatially fine-grained data for future research on environmental and health inequalities.