study of environmental impacts on minority populations

[asagady@sojourn.com]

Dear folks on dioxin-l...

...Below is content circulated today in Michigan as a news
release that was circulated by the Michigan Environmental Council
on ENVIRO-MICH, the Michigan-based Internet list on 
environmental and conservation issues in our state.

Alex Sagady

>Return-Path: <owner-enviro-mich@igc.org>
>Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 08:08:22 -0800 (PST)
>From: mienvcouncil@igc.apc.org
>Subject: study of environmental impacts on minority populations
>To: enviro-mich@igc.apc.org
>X-Sender: mienvcouncil@pop.igc.org
>Sender: owner-enviro-mich@igc.org
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE            CONTACT: Elaine Hockman, (313) 577-4740
>Tuesday, November 26, 1996                    Charles Morris, (313) 283-9574
>
>Study Finds Link between Incinerators, Minority Status and Cancer in Michigan
>
>Detroit--A recent study has established a link between environmental
>pollution, race, and cancer and low birth weight. Using both demographic
>and housing data from the 1990 Census and locational data of major
>pollution sources across the State of Michigan, Dr. Elaine Hockman,
>Director of the Research Support Laboratory at Wayne State University and
>Charles Morris, Graduate Student in Urban Planning at Wayne State, have
>shown a strong link between various types of pollution sources and minority
>status.
>
>Although the data does not prove causation, it suggests a strong
>association between race and pollution and human health problems that
>should concern state and local policymakers, and spur protective actions,
>the researchers said.
>
>With State of Michigan zip codes as the unit of analysis Hockman and Morris
>have used multivariate statistics to establish that:
>
>1) Race is a consistent predictor of location of pollution sources, with
>pollution sources occurring more often in minority areas.  However, other
>socioeconomic and housing characteristics, other than income, also predict
>environmental sources of contamination.  The drive time to work (shorter
>time), the percent of home ownership (more renters), housing value, percent
>on public assistance (greater percentage), number of persons per household
>(fewer), vacant housing (less) and population density (greater) impact the
>siting of pollution sources.  Minority racial status remains a major
>contributor to spatial location near pollution sources, particularly
>incinerators.
>
>2) This study looked at multiple pollution sources simultaneously- the
>listing of Leaking Underground Storage Tanks (LUST) for 1990, the lists of
>Act 307 Hazardous Waste Sites for 1990 and 1995, the Toxic Release
>Inventory (TRI) for 1989 and 1993, landfills for 1996, hazardous waste
>treatment facilities for 1996, and listing of incinerators for 1996.
>Hockman and Morris found that incinerators and LUST sites are more likely
>to be associated with minority racial status and lower income than are
>landfills and hazardous waste sites.
>
>3) Despite all the publicity and State efforts to target hazardous waste
>sites for cleanup, little cleanup is actually occurring.  Of the 1,961
>sites that were on the Act 307 list for both 1990 and 1995 and had a
>cleanup status indicator for both years, only 14% have shown any
>improvement in status over that five year period.  Over 80% of the sites
>have had no cleanup activity at all.  A surprising 6% of the sites report
>slippage.  The good news for the State is that Hockman and Morris found no
>evidence of racial of racial or class bias in the sites that had attention
>to cleanup versus those that didn't.
>
>4) Environmental pollution is associated with increased rates of suspected
>environmental cancers (i.e. derived from reported new cases of cancer in
>1987, 1990 and 1993) even when controls for age, population and household
>density, and race were added.  In particular, the presence of incinerators
>is associated with areas of higher cancer rates.  Environmental pollution
>also impacts increased rates of low birth weight (<2,000 grams).
>
>For copies of the report, contact Heckman via e-mail at
>ehockma@cms.cc.wayne.edu or Morris at morriscm@earthlink.net.
>
>
>
>Michigan Environmental Council
>115 W. Allegan St., Suite 10B
>Lansing, MI  48933
>(517) 487-9539* FAX: (517) 487-9541
>mec@mienv.org or mienvcouncil@igc.apc.org
>WWW address:mienv.org
>
>
>