Disparities in job characteristics by race and sex in a Southern aluminum smelting facility.

BACKGROUND: Former workers at a Southern aluminum smelting facility raised concerns that the most hazardous jobs were assigned to Black workers, but the role of workplace segregation had not been quantified or examined in the company town. Prior studies discuss race and gender disparities in working conditions, but few have documented them in the aluminum industry. METHODS: We obtained workers' company records for 1985-2007 and characterized four job metrics: prestige (sociologic rankings), worker-defined danger (worker assessments), annual wage (1985 dollars), and estimated total particulate matter (TPM) exposure (job exposure matrix). Characteristics of job at hire and trajectories were compared by race and sex using linear binomial models. RESULTS: Non-White males had the highest percentage of workers in low prestige and high danger jobs at hire and up to 20 years after. After 20 years tenure, 100% of White workers were in higher prestige and lower danger jobs. Most female workers, regardless of race, entered and remained in low-wage jobs, while 50% of all male workers maintained their initial higher-wage jobs. Non-White females had the highest prevalence of workers in low-wage jobs at hire and after 20 years-increasing from 63% (95% CI: 59-67) to 100% (95% CI: 78-100). All female workers were less likely to be in high TPM exposure jobs. Non-White males were most likely to be hired into high TPM exposure jobs, and this exposure prevalence increased as time accrued, while staying constant for other race-sex groups. CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence of job segregation by race and sex in this cohort of aluminum smelting workers. Documentation of disparities in occupational hazards is important for informing health interventions and research.

Natural Gas Gathering and Transmission Pipelines and Social Vulnerability in the United States.

Midstream oil and gas infrastructure comprises vast networks of gathering and transmission pipelines that connect upstream extraction to downstream consumption. In the United States (US), public policies and corporate decisions have prompted a wave of proposals for new gathering and transmission pipelines in recent years, raising the question: Who bears the burdens associated with the existing pipeline infrastructure in the US? With this in mind, we examined the density of natural gas gathering and transmission pipelines in the US, together with county-level data on social vulnerability. For the 2,261 US counties containing natural gas pipelines, we found a positive correlation between county-level pipeline density and an index of social vulnerability. In general, counties with more socially vulnerable populations have significantly higher pipeline densities than counties with less socially vulnerable populations. In particular, counties in the top quartile of social vulnerability tend to have pipeline densities that are much higher than pipeline densities for counties in the bottom quartile of social vulnerability. The difference grows larger for counties at the upper extremes of pipeline density within each group. We discuss some of the implications for the indigenous communities and others affected by recent expansions of oil and gas infrastructure. We offer recommendations aimed at improving ways in which decision-makers identify and address the societal impacts and environmental justice implications of midstream pipeline infrastructure.

Cancer and noncancer mortality among aluminum smelting workers in Badin, North Carolina.

BACKGROUND: Badin, North Carolina, hosted an aluminum smelting plant from 1917 to 2007. The Concerned Citizens of West Badin reported suspected excess cancer mortality among former employees. This study aimed to investigate these concerns. METHODS: The study cohort was enumerated from United Steel Workers' records of workers employed from 1980 to 2007. Cause-specific mortality rates in the cohort were compared with North Carolina population mortality rates using standardized mortality ratios (SMRs), standardized by age, sex, race, and calendar period. We estimated cause-specific adjusted standardized mortality ratios (aSMRs) using negative controls to mitigate healthy worker survivor bias (HWSB). Standardized rate ratios (SRRs) were calculated to compare mortality rates between workers ever employed vs never employed in the pot room. RESULTS: All-cause mortality among Badin workers was lower than in the general population (SMR: 0.81, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.71-0.92). After adjusting for HWSB, excesses for all cancers (aSMR: 1.55, 95% CI: 1.10-2.21), bladder cancer (3.47, 95% CI: 1.25-9.62), mesothelioma (17.33, 95% CI: 5.40-55.59), and respiratory cancer (1.24, 95% CI: 0.77-1.99) were observed. Black males worked the highest proportion of their employed years in the pot room. Potroom workers experienced higher respiratory cancer (SRR: 2.99, 95% CI: 1.23-7.26), bladder cancer (SRR: 1.58, 95% CI: 0.15-15.28), and mesothelioma (SRR: 3.36, 95% CI: 0.21-53.78) mortality rates than never workers in the pot room. CONCLUSIONS: This study responds to concerns of a group of former aluminum workers. The results, while imprecise, suggest excess respiratory and bladder cancers among pot room workers in a contemporary cohort of union employees at a US smelter.