Toxic Release Inventory Facilities Research Articles

Environmental Carcinogen Releases and Lung Cancer Mortality in Rural-Urban Areas of the United States

Environmental hazards are unevenly distributed across communities and populations; however, little is known about the distribution of environmental carcinogenic pollutants and lung cancer risk across populations defined by race, sex, and rural-urban setting. We used the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) database to conduct an ecological study at the county level (a total of 3,141 counties). Multiple linear regressions were used to assess the associations of carcinogenic discharges from TRI sites and lung cancer mortality rates at the county level in the United States during the years 1990 through 2007. We observed an excess risk of population lung cancer mortality associated with higher amounts of environmental carcinogen releases from TRI facilities in both males and females, and in both whites and African Americans. The strength of these associations tended to be stronger in African Americans. A significant dose-response relationship was observed for the total volume of carcinogen releases or carcinogen releases to the air, but not releases to water. These associations appeared to be present within nonmetropolitan counties but not metropolitan counties, and to be concentrated in certain urban-rural county typologies. Our results suggest that exposure to higher carcinogen releases from industrial or chemical facilities in rural areas may increase the risk of lung cancer mortality. Our findings add to the evidence for undertaking prudent efforts to limit the release of carcinogenic chemicals into the environment.

Justice for All? A Cross‐Time Analysis of Toxics Release Inventory Facility Location

AbstractThis paper contributes to the environmental justice literature by addressing several outstanding issues in a single study. Using a cross‐time data set that allows us to control for the prevalent “chicken‐and‐egg” or “which‐came‐first” problem, we analyze the relative importance of poverty and race/ethnicity in an analysis that includes economic costs, potential legal costs, and potential collective action. Because the most appropriate functional form is not obvious, we use several methods, including Tobit, Poisson, and ordinary least squares, on different forms of the dependent variable. In every case, controlling for the population present at the time of disamenity location and controlling the other factors mentioned, we find evidence of disproportionate collocation based on race/ethnicity, but not on poverty alone. We also find that the potential for collective action decreases the likelihood of receipt of the studied disamenities.

Maternal residential proximity to waste sites and industrial facilities and conotruncal heart defects in offspring

Most studies of the relationship between maternal residential proximity to sources of environmental pollution and congenital cardiovascular malformations have combined heart defects into one group or broad subgroups. The current case-control study examined whether risk of conotruncal heart defects, including subsets of specific defects, was associated with maternal residential proximity to hazardous waste sites and industrial facilities with recorded air emissions. Texas Birth Defects Registry cases were linked to their birth or fetal death certificate. Controls without birth defects were randomly selected from birth certificates. Distances from maternal addresses at delivery to National Priority List (NPL) waste sites, state superfund waste sites, and Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) facilities were determined for 1244 cases (89.5% of those eligible) and 4368 controls (88.0%). Living within 1 mile of a hazardous waste site was not associated with risk of conotruncal heart defects [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 0.83, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.54, 1.27]. This was true whether looking at most types of defects or waste sites. Only truncus arteriosus showed statistically elevated ORs with any waste site (crude OR: 2.80, 95% CI 1.19, 6.54) and with NPL sites (crude OR: 4.63, 95% CI 1.18, 13.15; aOR 4.99, 95% CI 1.26, 14.51), but the latter was based on only four exposed cases. There was minimal association between conotruncal heart defects and proximity to TRI facilities (aOR = 1.10, 95% CI = 0.91, 1.33). Stratification by maternal age or race/ethnic group made little difference in effect estimates for waste sites or industrial facilities. In this study population, maternal residential proximity to waste sites or industries with reported air emissions was not associated with conotruncal heart defects or its subtypes in offspring, with the exception of truncus arteriosus.

Environmental Justice Implications of Reduced Reporting Requirements of the Toxics Release Inventory Burden Reduction Rule

This paper presents a geographic information systems (GIS) methodology for evaluating the environmental justice implications of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Burden Reduction Rule, which was issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in December 2006 under the authority of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986. This rule exempts industrial facilities meeting certain higher reporting thresholds from filing detailed reports about the quantities of chemicals used, released, or managed as waste. Our analytical approach examines demographic characteristics within a 1, 3, and 5 km buffer around a georeferenced facility location, applied on a national, regional, and state scale. The distance-based GIS analysis demonstrates that TRI facilities that are eligible for reduced reporting are more likely to be located in proximity to communities with a higher percentage of minority and low-income residents. The differences are more pronounced for percent minority and percent minority under age 5 in comparison to percent in poverty, and the demographic differences are more apparent at increasingly resolved geographic scales.

Skewed Riskscapes and Environmental Injustice: A Case Study of Metropolitan St. Louis

This article presents a case study of Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) air pollution exposure risks across metropolitan St. Louis. The first section critically reviews environmental justice research and related barriers to environmental risk management. Second, the paper offers a conventional analysis of the spatial patterns of TRI facilities and their surrounding census block group demographics for metropolitan St. Louis. Third, the article describes the use of an exposure risk characterization for 319 manufacturers and their air releases of more than 126 toxic pollutants. This information could lead to more practical resolutions of urban environmental injustices. The analysis of TRIs across metropolitan St. Louis shows that minority and low-income residents were disproportionately closer to industrial pollution sources at nonrandom significance levels. Spatial concentrations of minority residents averaged nearly 40% within one kilometer of St. Louis TRI sites compared to 25% elsewhere. However, one-fifth of the region's air pollution exposure risk over a decade was spatially concentrated among only six facilities on the southwestern border of East St. Louis. This disproportionate concentration of some of the greatest pollution risk would never be considered in most conventional environmental justice analyses. Not all pollution exposure risk is average, and the worst risks deserve more attention from environmental managers assessing and mitigating environmental injustices.

TRI to Communicate: Public Knowledge of the Federal Toxics Release Inventory*

Objective. Investigate public knowledge and use of information from the U.S. Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), the most internationally prominent and well‐regarded environmental information program, providing industrial facility chemical release and transfer data since 1989.Method. Three‐phase survey panel of 1,292 people in two counties.Results. Only very small percentages recalled, without prompting, TRI or recognized it when it was mentioned. Only minuscule percentages recalled TRI facility names when asked for local facilities using hazardous chemicals. Respondents did not recognize most local TRI facilities or know if they used hazardous chemicals. Very few who were aware of TRI information obtained it from the sources Congress intended. Finally, when provided with TRI information, many respondents did not review it and virtually no one took any action.Conclusions. These results raise concerns about the TRI program's effectiveness in enhancing public knowledge of nearby industrial facilities using hazardous chemicals.

Environmental Racial Inequality in Detroit

This study uses industrial pollution data from the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and tract-level demographic data from the 2000 U.S. census to determine whether environmental racial inequality existed in the Detroit metropolitan area in the year 2000. This study differs from prior environmental inequality research in two important ways. First, it offers a positive rationale for using hazard proximity indicators. Second, it uses a distance decay modeling technique to estimate hazard proximity. This technique weights each hazard's estimated negative effect by distance such that the estimated negative effect declines continuously as distance from the hazard increases, thus providing more accurate estimates of proximity-based environmental risk than can be obtained using other variable construction techniques currently found in the literature. Using this technique, I find that Detroit's black neighborhoods were disproportionately burdened by TRI facility activity in 2000 and that neighborhood racial composition had a strong independent effect on neighborhood proximity to TRI activity.

Match Rate and Positional Accuracy of Two Geocoding Methods for Epidemiologic Research

This study compares the match rate and positional accuracy of two geocoding methods: the popular geocoding tool in ArcGIS 9.1 and the Centrus GeoCoder for ArcGIS. We first geocoded 11,016 Texas addresses in a case-control study using both methods and obtained the match rate of each method. We then randomly selected 200 addresses from those geocoded by using both methods and obtained geographic coordinates of the 200 addresses by using a global positioning system (GPS) device. Of the 200 addresses, 110 were case maternal residence addresses and 90 were control maternal residence addresses. These GPS-surveyed coordinates were used as the "true" coordinates to calculate positional errors of geocoded locations. We used Wilcoxon signed rank test to evaluate whether differences in positional errors from the two methods were statistically significantly different from zero. In addition, we calculated the sensitivity and specificity of the two methods for classifying maternal addresses within 1500 m of toxic release inventory facilities when distance is used as a proxy of exposure. The match rate of the Centrus GeoCoder was more than 10% greater than that of the geocoding tool in ArcGIS 9.1. Positional errors with the Centrus GeoCoder were less than those of the geocoding tool in ArcGIS 9.1, and this difference was statistically significant. Sensitivity and specificity of the two methods are similar. Centrus GeoCoder for ArcGIS for geocoding gives greater match rates than the geocoding tool in ArcGIS 9.1. Although the Centrus GeoCoder has better positional accuracy, both methods give similar results in classifying maternal addresses within 1500 m of toxic release inventory facilities when distance is used as a proxy of exposure.

Near and Not-So-Dear TRI Facilities: Prenatal Proximity and Later BrainCancer

The most clearly established environmental risk factor for childhood brain cancer is therapeutic radiation exposure (not including diagnostic X-rays). New research now suggests that children of mothers who lived near an EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) facility while pregnant may be more likely to later develop brain cancer, especially if the site released carcinogens [EHP 114:1113–1118; Choi et al.]. Prenatal exposure to chemicals can have profound long-term effects, as some toxic chemicals that are stopped by the blood–brain barrier in adults may reach the fetus via the placenta. This work is the first to specifically examine brain cancer risk in children and potential exposure to TRI releases, although some previous research has suggested slight increases in risk for certain birth defects associated with such emissions. Of the more than 650 toxic chemicals listed in the TRI, 193 are known or suspected carcinogens, according to the EPA. Fifty-five known, probable, or possible carcinogens were actually released within 2 miles of the study participants. However, it is very difficult to accurately assess exposure to TRI releases. The TRI itself shows only the type and mass of chemicals released in a given year, not where the chemicals went or precisely when they were released. Because of the uncertainty built into using these data, studies such as this must be interpreted with caution. The study included 382 children diagnosed with brain cancer before age 10 and an equal number of cancer-free controls analyzed as pairs. Mothers of children whose brain cancer was diagnosed before age 10 years were nearly 50% more likely to have lived within 1 mile of such a site during pregnancy; the likelihood was nearly 75% higher for children diagnosed before age 5. However, when looking at risk for two major childhood brain cancer types in particular, astrocytoma and primitive neuroectodermal tumors, there was no difference. The team used EPA Region III’s chronic toxicity index, which combines total mass released with toxicity factors including carcinogenic weight of evidence and cancer potency factors. For this study, inhalation and oral cancer potency factors were included. Other potential factors, such as mothers’ exposures in the work-place during pregnancy, children’s postnatal exposure, and exposure through contaminated drinking water, were not taken into account. The authors therefore caution that their results are not conclusive, but should be replicated and expanded using improved exposure measures.

Susceptibility of residential wells to VOC and nitrate contamination.

Water quality of residential wells is vital to public health and a complex issue for regulatory agencies. South Carolina, a typical southeastern rural state, has no required testing of residential well water quality after initial well construction. This study used site-selection criteria to identify susceptible residential wells based on a combination of geologic vulnerability and potential contaminant loading. Geologic vulnerability was defined as increased probability of contaminants being transported from the land surface into the groundwater based on geological properties. As a surrogate for potential general contaminant loading, wells were located within 800 m of an EPA Toxics Release Inventory facility reporting VOC emissions, thus sampling was nonrandom. Seventy private residential wells were sampled for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) and analyzed using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and the cadmium reduction method, respectively. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was used to quantify four explanatory variables that affect well susceptibility to nitrate: population density, land cover, local relief (percent slope), and soil texture. VOCs were detected in 11 wells, and two sites exceeded the MCL for 1,1-dichloroethylene (36.1 microg/L) and trichloroethylene (9.0 microg/L). Elevated NO3-N (defined as > or = 1.0 mg/L) was measured in 20 wells. Logistic regression identified grassland/cultivated land cover as a variable that significantly increased the probability of NO3-N contamination (p = 0.003). Using easily accessible databases to identify factors that increase the probability of groundwater pollution could lead to more effective programs for locating residential wells that are susceptible to contamination. Increased monitoring of well water quality, as is being considered in some states, is warranted to reduce potential human exposure to contaminated drinking water.

Environmental justice and regional inequality in southern California: implications for future research.

Environmental justice offers researchers new insights into the juncture of social inequality and public health and provides a framework for policy discussions on the impact of discrimination on the environmental health of diverse communities in the United States. Yet, causally linking the presence of potentially hazardous facilities or environmental pollution with adverse health effects is difficult, particularly in situations in which diverse populations are exposed to complex chemical mixtures. A community-academic research collaborative in southern California sought to address some of these methodological challenges by conducting environmental justice research that makes use of recent advances in air emissions inventories and air exposure modeling data. Results from several of our studies indicate that communities of color bear a disproportionate burden in the location of treatment, storage, and disposal facilities and Toxic Release Inventory facilities. Longitudinal analysis further suggests that facility siting in communities of color, not market-based "minority move-in," accounts for these disparities. The collaborative also investigated the health risk implications of outdoor air toxics exposures from mobile and stationary sources and found that race plays an explanatory role in predicting cancer risk distributions among populations in the region, even after controlling for other socioeconomic and demographic indicators. Although it is unclear whether study results from southern California can be meaningfully generalized to other regions in the United States, they do have implications for approaching future research in the realm of environmental justice. The authors propose a political economy and social inequality framework to guide future research that could better elucidate the origins of environmental inequality and reasons for its persistence.

Environmental equity in a sunbelt city: the spatial distribution of toxic hazards in Phoenix, Arizona

This paper examines the spatial distributions of industrial facilities emitting toxic substances in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan region. The analysis relies on geographic information system mapping of hazardous facilities listed in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) to assess the spatial distribution of polluting industries in relation to the demographic composition of host neighborhoods. The research addresses four questions: (1) Are there differences between the socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhoods with and without polluting industrial facilities? (2) Is there a relationship between the volume of toxic chemicals released from industrial facilities and the socioeconomic characteristics of host neighborhoods? (3) Is there a relationship between the toxicity of the chemicals released from industrial facilities and the socioeconomic characteristics of those living in proximity? (4) Do alternative methods for determining the distribution of potentially affected populations produce different observed patterns of environmental inequities? The study concludes that there is a clear pattern of environmental inequity in Phoenix based on the location and volume of emissions of TRI facilities. Analysis of the toxicity of emissions found a more equal distribution of risk, reflecting the suburbanization of high-technology industries into predominantly white middle-class communities.

Environmental equity in a sunbelt city: the spatial distribution of toxic hazards in Phoenix, Arizona

Abstract This paper examines the spatial distributions of industrial facilities emitting toxic substances in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan region. The analysis relies on geographic information system mapping of hazardous facilities listed in the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) to assess the spatial distribution of polluting industries in relation to the demographic composition of host neighborhoods. The research addresses four questions: (1) Are there differences between the socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhoods with and without polluting industrial facilities? (2) Is there a relationship between the volume of toxic chemicals released from industrial facilities and the socioeconomic characteristics of host neighborhoods? (3) Is there a relationship between the toxicity of the chemicals released from industrial facilities and the socioeconomic characteristics of those living in proximity? (4) Do alternative methods for determining the distribution of potentially affected populations produce different observed patterns of environmental inequities? The study concludes that there is a clear pattern of environmental inequity in Phoenix based on the location and volume of emissions of TRI facilities. Analysis of the toxicity of emissions found a more equal distribution of risk, reflecting the suburbanization of high-technology industries into predominantly white middle-class communities.

An examination of race and poverty for populations living near industrial sources of air pollution.

This study examines the sociodemographic characteristics of people living near industrial sources of air pollution in three areas of the United States: (1) the Kanawha Valley in West Virginia: (2) the Baton Rouge-New Orleans corridor in Louisiana: and (3) the greater Baltimore metropolitan area in Maryland. Using data from the 1990 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and the 1990 Census, we analyze relationships between variables assumed to be independent, such as location of single or multiple industrial emission sources, and the dependent variables of race (black/white) and poverty status (above/below poverty level). Results from all three study areas are consistent and indicate that African Americans and those living in households defined to be below the established poverty level are more likely, on average, to live closer to the nearest TRI facility and to live within 2 miles of multiple TRI facilities. Conversely, whites and those living in households above the poverty level are more likely, on average, to live farther from the nearest TRI facility and to live within 2 miles of fewer facilities, compared to African Americans and poor people.

Toxic chemical wastes and the coincidence of carcinogenic mortality in Texas

Environmental‐justice proponents have argued that demographic factors unevenly affect the location of manufacturing and waste facilities and, thus, differences in exposure risks and outcomes. In this paper, statistical relationships among demographic factors, toxic chemical wastes released by Texas manufacturing facilities who participated in the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory program in 1990, and carcinogenic causes of death were examined at the county level of analysis. Three types of carcinogenic death rates were regressed against the following county‐level variables: percent of the population under the age of 14, percent of the population 65 years of age and older, percent of population female in the childbearing ages of 15 to 44 years, percent Black population, percent Hispanic population, population density, percent of population employed in manufacturing industries, and per capita income. Results indicated that the elderly and young proportions of county population and the population density were the most important variables in explaining cancer mortality rates. Although some support was found for racially based correlations with the location of Toxics Release Inventory facilities and carcinogenic releases in the bivariate analysis, very little evidence was found among demographic and industrial factors that explained differences in cancer mortality rates. Implications of the findings for future research are discussed.

Hazard screening of chemical releases and environmental equity analysis of populations proximate to toxic release inventory facilities in Oregon.

A comprehensive approach using hazard screening, demographic analysis, and a geographic information system (GIS) for mapping is employed to address environmental equity issues in Oregon. A media-specific chronic toxicity index [or chronic index (CI)] was used to compare environmental chemical releases reported in the EPA's Toxic Chemical Release Inventory (TRI) database. In 1992, 254 facilities reportedly released more than 40 million pounds of toxic chemicals directly into the environment on-site or transferred them to sewage treatment plants or other off-site facilities for disposal and recycling. For each reported on-site TRI chemical release, a CI based on oral toxicity factors and total mass was calculated. CIs were aggregated on a media-, facility-, and chemical-specific basis. Glycol ethers, nickel, trichloroethylene, chloroform, and manganese were ranked as the top five chemicals released statewide based on total CI. In contrast, based on total mass, methanol, nickel, ammonia, acetone, and toluene were identified as the top five TRI chemicals released in Oregon. TRI facility rankings were related to the demographics and household income of surrounding neighborhoods using bivariate GIS mapping and statistical analysis. TRI facilities were disproportionately located in racial and ethnic minority neighborhoods. They were also located in areas with lower incomes compared to those in the surrounding county. No relationship was observed between the hazard ranking of the TRI facilities overall and socioeconomic characteristics of the community in which they were located.

Hazard Screening of Chemical Releases and Environmental Equity Analysis of Populations Proximate to Toxic Release Inventory Facilities in Oregon

A comprehensive approach using hazard screening, demographic analysis, and a geographic information system (GIS) for mapping is employed to address environmental equity issues in Oregon. A media-specific chronic toxicity index [or chronic index (CI)] was used to compare environmental chemical releases reported in the EPA's Toxic Chemical Release Inventory (TRI) database. In 1992, 254 facilities reportedly released more than 40 million pounds of toxic chemicals directly into the environment on-site or transferred them to sewage treatment plants or other off-site facilities for disposal and recycling. For each reported on-site TRI chemical release, a CI based on oral toxicity factors and total mass was calculated. CIs were aggregated on a media-, facility-, and chemical-specific basis. Glycol ethers, nickel, trichloroethylene, chloroform, and manganese were ranked as the top five chemicals released statewide based on total CI. In contrast, based on total mass, methanol, nickel, ammonia, acetone, and toluene were identified as the top five TRI chemicals released in Oregon. TRI facility rankings were related to the demographics and household income of surrounding neighborhoods using bivariate GIS mapping and statistical analysis. TRI facilities were disproportionately located in racial and ethnic minority neighborhoods. They were also located in areas with lower incomes compared to those in the surrounding county. No relationship was observed between the hazard ranking of the TRI facilities overall and socioeconomic characteristics of the community in which they were located.