Quantifying Disparities in Air Pollution Exposures across the United States Using Home and Work Addresses

Authors

Priyanka de Souza, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado 80202, United States.
Susan Anenberg, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 20037, United States.
Carrie Makarewicz, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado 80202, United States.
Manish Shirgaokar, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado 80202, United States.
Fabio Duarte, Senseable City Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
Carlo Ratti, Senseable City Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
John L. Durant, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, United States.
Patrick L. Kinney, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, United States.
Deb Niemeier, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, United States.

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1-9-2024

Journal

Environmental science & technology

Volume

58

Issue

1

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.3c07926

Keywords

air pollution; environmental justice; epidemiology; mobility

Abstract

While human mobility plays a crucial role in determining ambient air pollution exposures and health risks, research to date has assessed risks on the basis of almost solely residential location. Here, we leveraged a database of ∼128-144 million workers in the United States and published ambient PM data between 2011 and 2018 to explore how incorporating information on both workplace and residential location changes our understanding of disparities in air pollution exposure. In general, we observed higher workplace exposures relative to home exposures, as well as increased exposures for nonwhite and less educated workers relative to the national average. Workplace exposure disparities were higher among racial and ethnic groups and job types than by income, education, age, and sex. Not considering workplace exposures can lead to systematic underestimations in disparities in exposure among these subpopulations. We also quantified the error in assigning workers home instead of a weighted home-and-work exposure. We observed that biases in associations between PM and health impacts by using home instead of home-and-work exposure were the highest among urban, younger populations.

APA Citation

de Souza, Priyanka; Anenberg, Susan; Makarewicz, Carrie; Shirgaokar, Manish; Duarte, Fabio; Ratti, Carlo; Durant, John L.; Kinney, Patrick L.; and Niemeier, Deb, "Quantifying Disparities in Air Pollution Exposures across the United States Using Home and Work Addresses" (2024). GW Authored Works. Paper 4197.
https://hsrc.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/gwhpubs/4197

Department

Environmental and Occupational Health