Investigators report they have uncovered patterns in the risk of cancer associated with lifetime exposure to air pollution and how this risk may have changed over time, in a recent study published by Hurbain et al in Environmental Science & Technology. The findings could build on the scientific understanding of how air pollution and the risk of cancer are distributed throughout the United States.
Study Methods and Results
Previous studies have identified disparities in how public health risks may vary by income and race as well as public health disparities related to specific air pollutants. In the recent study, the investigators used sociodemographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau and public health and air pollution data from the 2011 to 2019 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Toxics Screening Assessment—which maps concentrations of hundreds of toxic air pollutants from all sources as well as cancer risk estimates tied to lifetime exposure across U.S. census tracts—to examine the relationship between air pollution exposure and cancer risk.
“[We] wanted to look holistically at poor health outcomes from air pollution exposure throughout the country and through time to see if things are getting better or worse, and what the main socioeconomic drivers are for where the pollution is being distributed,” said lead study author Patrick Hurbain, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher and environmental epidemiologist at the Desert Research Institute.
The investigators identified a higher estimated cancer risk linked to air toxins in communities that were urban, had lower incomes, and had a higher proportion of racial minorities. Census tracts with the highest estimated cancer risk were found in urban communities, with racial demographics showing stronger correlations with disparities compared with either income or education level. Communities with the highest levels of estimated cancer risk—including those in southern Louisiana—had significantly more Black and Hispanic individuals compared with White individuals. This racial disparity was not consistent in rural and suburban communities, where larger White populations showed higher burdens of cancer risk.
“There is a definite effect of the social makeup of an area with respect to their estimated risk from air pollution,” Dr. Hurbain emphasized. The study found that racial disparities peaked in 2011, with the magnitude of the disparity improving in later years. Disparities for lower-income communities, however, were found to be consistent through time.
“That means that air pollution control measures are doing better, and people are, in fact, getting less air toxics across the country—which is exciting,” Dr. Hurbain added.
Conclusions
The investigators plan to expand on their findings by focusing on the most impacted communities and exploring factors like the age of housing, poverty levels, and surrounding industries to identify strategies to improve public health. With publicly available data the investigators hope that more individuals will get involved in examining the risks in their own communities.
“Everyone can be a citizen scientist and start looking at the state of our environment,” Dr. Hurbain concluded.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit pubs.acs.org.
