Race, Racism, and Drinking Water Contamination Risk From Oil and Gas Wells in Los Angeles County, 2020.

Objectives. To evaluate the potential for drinking water contamination in Los Angeles (LA) County, California, based on the proximity of supply wells to oil and gas wells, and characterize risk with respect to race/ethnicity and measures of structural racism. Methods. We identified at-risk community water systems (CWSs) as those with supply wells within 1 kilometer of an oil or gas well. We characterized sociodemographics of the populations served by each CWS by using the 2013-2017 American Community Survey. We estimated the degree of redlining in each CWS service area by using 1930s Home Owners' Loan Corporation security maps, and characterized segregation by using the Index of Concentration at the Extremes. Multivariable regression models estimated associations between these variables and CWS contamination risk. Results. A quarter of LA County CWSs serving more than 7 million residents have supply wells within 1 kilometer of an oil or gas well. Higher percentages of Hispanic, Black, and Asian/Pacific Islander residents and a greater degree of redlining and residential segregation were associated with higher contamination risk. Conclusions. Redlining and segregation predict drinking water contamination risks from oil development in LA County, with people of color at greater risk. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(11):1191-1200. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307374).

Assessment of the health benefits to children of a transportation climate policy in New York City.

BACKGROUND: Assessments of health and environmental effects of clean air and climate policies have revealed substantial health benefits due to reductions in air pollution, but have included few pediatric outcomes or assessed benefits at the neighborhood level. OBJECTIVES: We estimated benefits across a suite of child health outcomes in 42 New York City (NYC) neighborhoods under the proposed regional Transportation and Climate Initiative. We also estimated their distribution across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups. METHODS: We estimated changes in ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations associated with on-road emissions under nine different predefined cap-and-invest scenarios. Health outcomes, including selected adverse birth, respiratory, and neurodevelopmental outcomes, were estimated using a program similar to the U.S. EPA BenMAP program. We stratified the associated monetized benefits across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups. RESULTS: The benefits varied widely over the different cap-and-investment scenarios. For a 25% reduction in carbon emissions from 2022 to 2032 and a strategy prioritizing public transit investments, NYC would have an estimated 48 fewer medical visits for childhood asthma, 13,000 avoided asthma exacerbations not requiring medical visits, 640 fewer respiratory illnesses unrelated to asthma, and 9 avoided adverse birth outcomes (infant mortality, preterm birth, and term low birth weight) annually, starting in 2032. The total estimated annual avoided costs are $22 million. City-wide, Black and Hispanic children would experience 1.7 times the health benefits per capita than White and Non-Hispanic White children, respectively. Under the same scenario, neighborhoods experiencing the highest poverty rates in NYC would experience about 2.5 times the health benefits per capita than the lowest poverty neighborhoods. CONCLUSION: A cap-and-invest strategy to reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector could provide substantial health and monetized benefits to children in NYC through reductions in criteria pollutant concentrations, with greater benefits among Black and Hispanic children.

Potential health benefits of sustained air quality improvements in New York City: A simulation based on air pollution levels during the COVID-19 shutdown.

New York City (NYC) experienced a sharp decline in air pollution during the COVID-19 shutdown period (March 15, 2020 to May 15, 2020)-albeit at high social and economic costs. It provided a unique opportunity to simulate a scenario in which the city-wide air quality improvement during the shutdown were sustained over the five-year period, 2021 through 2025, allowing us to estimate the potential public health benefits to children and adults and their associated economic benefits. We focused on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and modeled potential future health benefits to children and adults. The analysis considered outcomes in children that have not generally been accounted for in clean air benefits assessments, including preterm birth, term low birthweight, infant mortality, child asthma incidence, child asthma hospital admissions and emergency department visits, autism spectrum disorder, as well as adult mortality. We estimated a city-wide 23% improvement in PM2.5 levels during the COVID-19 shutdown months compared to the average level for those months in 2015-2018 (the business as usual period). Based on the data for 2020, we extrapolated the ambient levels of PM2.5 for the following five-year period. The estimated cumulative benefits for 2021-2025 included thousands of avoided cases of illness and death, with associated economic benefits from $31.8 billion to $77 billion. This "natural experiment," tragic though the cause, has provided a hypothetical clean air scenario that can be considered aspirational-one that could be achieved through transportation, climate, and environmental policies that support robust economic recovery with similarly reduced emissions.

Hurricane Harvey and the risk of spontaneous preterm and early-term birth.

Background: Hurricane Harvey made landfall in August 2017 and resulted in catastrophic flooding in Houston, Texas. Prior studies of hurricanes and preterm birth have found conflicting results. We tested the hypotheses that exposure to Hurricane Harvey was associated with a higher risk of spontaneous pre- and early-term birth and assessed vulnerable subpopulations. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of singleton births using administrative birth records in the nine-county greater Houston area from 2015 to 2019. We estimated the likelihood of pre- and early-term births using logistic regression, comparing births occurring during or within 1, 2, or 4 weeks of Hurricane Harvey to unexposed reference periods encompassing the same dates 2 years prior and after. Stratified models assessed effect modification by degree of flooding, birth parent age, high- vs. low-risk pregnancy, race/ethnicity, and prenatal care. Results: Among 15,564 births, we found no association between exposure to Hurricane Harvey and spontaneous preterm birth within 1 week adjusted (odds ratio [OR], 1.06; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.91, 1.25) but a 14% higher odds of spontaneous early-term birth (OR, 1.14; 95% CI = 1.04, 1.25). The odds of early-term birth were even higher in neighborhoods with severe flooding (OR, 1.21; 95% CI = 1.05, 1.38), segregated neighborhoods (OR, 1.23; 95% CI = 1.03, 1.47), and among foreign-born Hispanics (OR, 1.21; 95% CI = 1.04, 1.53) and pregnant people receiving no prenatal care (OR, 1.37; 95% CI = 1.03, 1.82). Effect estimates were attenuated or null when considering 2-week or 4-week lags to define exposure. Conclusions: Hurricane Harvey was associated with higher odds of spontaneous early-term birth up to 1 week later, especially among socially marginalized populations.

Clean fleets, different streets: evaluating the effect of New York City's clean bus program on changes to estimated ambient air pollution.

BACKGROUND: Motor vehicles, including public transit buses, are a major source of air pollution in New York City (NYC) and worldwide. To address this problem, governments and transit agencies have implemented policies to introduce cleaner vehicles into transit fleets. Beginning in 2000, the Metropolitan Transit Agency began deploying compressed natural gas, hybrid electric, and low-sulfur diesel buses to reduce urban air pollution. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that bus fleet changes incorporating cleaner vehicles would have detectable effects on air pollution concentrations between 2009 and 2014, as measured by the New York City Community Air Survey (NYCCAS). METHODS: Depot- and route-specific information allowed identification of areas with larger or smaller changes in the proportion of distance traveled by clean buses. Data were assembled for 9670 300 m × 300 m grid cell areas with annual concentration estimates for nitrogen oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and black carbon (BC) from NYCCAS. Spatial error models adjusted for truck route presence and total traffic volume. RESULTS: While concentrations of all three pollutants declined between 2009 and 2014 even in the 39.7% of cells without bus service, the decline in concentrations of NO and NO2 was greater in areas with more bus service and with higher proportional shifts toward clean buses. Conversely, the decline in BC concentration was slower in areas with more bus service and higher proportional clean bus shifts. SIGNIFICANCE: These results provide evidence that the NYC clean bus program impacted concentrations of air pollution, particularly in reductions of NO2. Further work can investigate the potential impact of these changes on health outcomes in NYC residents. IMPACT STATEMENT: Urban air pollution from diesel-burning buses is an important health exposure. The New York Metropolitan Transit Agency has worked to deploy cleaner buses into their fleet, but the impact of this policy has not been evaluated. Successful reductions in air pollution are critical for public health.

Racial Disparities in Climate Change-Related Health Effects in the United States.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Climate change is causing warming over most parts of the USA and more extreme weather events. The health impacts of these changes are not experienced equally. We synthesize the recent evidence that climatic changes linked to global warming are having a disparate impact on the health of people of color, including children. RECENT FINDINGS: Multiple studies of heat, extreme cold, hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires find evidence that people of color, including Black, Latinx, Native American, Pacific Islander, and Asian communities are at higher risk of climate-related health impacts than Whites, although this is not always the case. Studies of adults have found evidence of racial disparities related to climatic changes with respect to mortality, respiratory and cardiovascular disease, mental health, and heat-related illness. Children are particularly vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change, and infants and children of color have experienced adverse perinatal outcomes, occupational heat stress, and increases in emergency department visits associated with extreme weather. The evidence strongly suggests climate change is an environmental injustice that is likely to exacerbate existing racial disparities across a broad range of health outcomes.

Co-Benefits to Children's Health of the U.S. Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

BACKGROUND: While various policies have been implemented globally to mitigate climate change and reduce exposure to toxic air pollutants, policy assessments have considered few if any of the benefits to children. OBJECTIVE: To comprehensively assess the co-benefits of climate change mitigation to children, we expanded the suite of adverse health outcomes in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program (BenMAP) to include additional outcomes associated with prenatal and childhood exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5). We applied this newly expanded program to an assessment of the U.S. Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the United States' first regional market-based regulatory program designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the electric power sector within the Northeast. METHODS: We used calculated changes in ambient PM2.5 concentrations for the period 2009-2014, with newly incorporated concentration-response (C-R) functions to quantify changes in the incidence of preterm birth (PTB), term low birth weight (TLBW), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and asthma. These outcomes are causally or likely to be causally related to PM2.5 exposure. Cost per case estimates were incorporated to monetize those changes in incidence. RESULTS: The estimated avoided cases of adverse child health outcomes included 537 asthma cases, 112 preterm births, 98 cases of ASD, and 56 cases of TLBW, with an associated avoided cost estimate ranging from $191 to $350 million. In a previous analysis of health benefits of RGGI, the only benefits accruing to children were limited to prevented cases of infant mortality and respiratory illnesses, with a monetized impact of $8.1 million-only 2-4% of the new results attributable to RGGI. CONCLUSION: The results of this innovative analysis indicate that RGGI has provided substantial child health benefits beyond those initially considered. Moreover, those health benefits had significant estimated economic value. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6706.