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Air pollution exposure disparities across US population and income groups

Abstract

Air pollution contributes to the global burden of disease, with ambient exposure to fine particulate matter of diameters smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) being identified as the fifth-ranking risk factor for mortality globally1. Racial/ethnic minorities and lower-income groups in the USA are at a higher risk of death from exposure to PM2.5 than are other population/income groups2,3,4,5. Moreover, disparities in exposure to air pollution among population and income groups are known to exist6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17. Here we develop a data platform that links demographic data (from the US Census Bureau and American Community Survey) and PM2.5 data18 across the USA. We analyse the data at the tabulation area level of US zip codes (N is approximately 32,000) between 2000 and 2016. We show that areas with higher-than-average white and Native American populations have been consistently exposed to average PM2.5 levels that are lower than areas with higher-than-average Black, Asian and Hispanic or Latino populations. Moreover, areas with low-income populations have been consistently exposed to higher average PM2.5 levels than areas with high-income groups for the years 2004–2016. Furthermore, disparities in exposure relative to safety standards set by the US Environmental Protection Agency19 and the World Health Organization20 have been increasing over time. Our findings suggest that more-targeted PM2.5 reductions are necessary to provide all people with a similar degree of protection from environmental hazards. Our study is observational and cannot provide insight into the drivers of the identified disparities.

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Fig. 1: Average PM2.5 concentration in 2000 and 2016 across ZCTAs in which Black or white populations are overrepresented.
Fig. 2: Average PM2.5 concentration in 2000 and 2016 across low- and high-income ZCTAs.
Fig. 3: US ZCTAs with average PM2.5 concentrations of more than 8 μg m−3 for Black and white populations in 2000 and 2016.
Fig. 4: Relative disparities in exposure to PM2.5 among racial/ethnic groups for 2000–2016.

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Data availability

Data are available in the following GitHub repositories: https://github.com/NSAPH/National-Causal-Analysis/tree/master/Confounders/census and https://github.com/xiaodan-zhou/pm25_and_disparity.

Code availability

Code is available in the following GitHub repository: https://github.com/xiaodan-zhou/pm25_and_disparity.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Martin and J. D. Schwartz for providing the air-pollution data; B. Sabbath for cleaning and preparing the data sets; and L. Bennett for comments and discussions. We also thank J. Kodros for his comments on an earlier draft. This work was supported financially by grants from the Health Effects Institute (4953- RFA14-3/16-4), the National Institutes of Health (DP2MD012722, P50MD010428), the National Institutes of Health and Yale University (R01MD012769), the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01 ES028033, R01ES026217, R01AG066793-01, R01ES029950, R01ES028033-S1), the National Institutes of Health and Columbia University (1R01ES030616), the Environmental Protection Agency (83587201-0), The Climate Change Solutions Fund, and a Harvard Star Friedman Award.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

A.J., S.V. and F.D. contributed to the study design. A.J. led the research, with support from X.Z. and supervision from F.D. Maps and videos were prepared by X.Z., J.L. and T.-H.L. A.J. drafted the manuscript, with support from L.K., S.V. and F.D. All authors read and approved the final manuscript for submission.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Abdulrahman Jbaily or Francesca Dominici.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature thanks Corbett Grainger, Jonathan Levy, Arden Pope III and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 Summary PM2.5 metrics across racial/ethnic and income groups.

a, The population-weighted average of PM2.5 decreased by 40.4% from the year 2000 to 2016. b, Population-weighted average PM2.5 concentration across the different racial/ethnic communities for 2000 to 2016, showing that Black and Native American populations live in the most- and least-polluted areas, respectively. c, Population-weighted average PM2.5 concentration across racial/ethnic communities as a function of ZCTA racial/ethnic population (%) for 2016. For example, when the racial/ethnic population percentage is equal to 0.2, the red curve includes every ZCTA where the Black population is 20% or more, and the blue curve includes every ZCTA where the white population is 20% or more. As a ZCTA’s Black and Hispanic or Latino populations increase, the PM2.5 concentration levels increase. The opposite effect is seen for the white and Native American communities. d, The population-weighted average PM2.5 concentration across the income groups reveals that the low-income group has been exposed to only slightly higher PM2.5 levels than the high-income groups since 2004. e, Population-weighted average PM2.5 concentrations across the different racial/ethnic communities that are in the low-income group, for 2000–2016. f, Population-weighted average PM2.5 concentrations across the different racial/ethnic communities that are in the high-income group, for 2000–2016. Panels e, f show similar differences in average PM2.5 concentrations across the racial/ethnic groups as seen in b.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Average PM2.5 concentrations across the US.

a, Distribution of PM2.5 in 2000. b, Distribution of PM2.5 in 2016. Supplementary Video 1 shows the change in the distribution of PM2.5 concentration levels in the US from 2000 to 2016. Note that Hawaii and Alaska are not shown. Imagery provided courtesy of Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, ©OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Average PM2.5 concentrations across ZCTAs in which different racial/ethnic groups are overrepresented.

a, Distribution of PM2.5 across five different maps for 2000, each showing the ZCTAs in which one race/ethnicity group is overrepresented. b, Distribution of PM2.5 across five different maps for 2016, each showing the ZCTAs in which one race/ethnicity group is overrepresented. Supplementary Videos 2, 3 show the change in the distribution of PM2.5 concentrations across the five maps from 2000 to 2016. Note that Hawaii and Alaska are not shown. Imagery provided courtesy of Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, ©OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Distribution of racial/ethnic populations above a PM2.5 threshold of 8 μg m−3 for 2000 and 2016.

a, US ZCTAs for each race/ethnicity are ranked on the basis of the ratio of the race/ethnicity population to the total ZCTA population. Dark blue indicates fractions close to 1 (ZCTAs in which the corresponding race/ethnicity most lives), and light yellow indicates fractions close to 0 (ZCTAs in which the corresponding race/ethnicity least lives). b, US ZCTAs with PM2.5 concentrations higher than 8 μg m−3 in 2000. c, US ZCTAs with PM2.5 concentrations higher than 8 μg m−3 in 2016. Supplementary Videos 58 show the distribution of the different racial/ethnic groups across multiple ranges of PM2.5 concentrations for 2000 and 2016. Note that Hawaii and Alaska are not shown. Imagery provided courtesy of Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, ©OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Supplementary measures of relative disparities in exposure to PM2.5 among racial/ethnic groups for 2000–2016.

a, The Atkinson index is computed to measure relative disparities among the racial/ethnic groups (Black, white, Asian, Native American and Hispanic or Latino). b, The Gini index is computed to measure relative disparities among the racial/ethnic groups (Black, white, Asian, Native American and Hispanic or Latino). The trends in both indices are similar to that measured by CoV (Fig. 4): racial/ethnic disparities in exposure to air pollution relative to pollution levels at or below the EPA standard are increasing. The Atkinson and Gini indices were computed using the inequality package ‘ineq’ in R software. The input is the proportion of the racial/ethnic (or income) groups living above the set PM2.5 threshold. We set the Atkinson aversion parameter, ε, to 0.75 (ref. 7); the sensitivity of the index to different values of ε is shown in Extended Data Fig. 6.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Sensitivity of the Atkinson index to the inequality aversion parameter ε.

a, Sensitivity of the Atkinson index relative to a PM2.5 threshold of 8 μg m−3. b, Sensitivity of the Atkinson index relative to a PM2.5 threshold of 10 μg m−3. c, Sensitivity of the Atkinson index relative to a PM2.5 threshold of 12 μg m−3. A consistent trend is shown across the parameter values.

Extended Data Fig. 7 Replication of the main findings across urban and rural areas.

A ZCTA’s population density is used as a metric to control for urbanicity in our study. We classify urban and rural areas on the basis of the percentage of the urban population in each ZCTA; such percentages are available from the US Census Bureau for 2010. ZCTAs with an urban population of more than 50% are classified as urban, whereas those with an urban population of less than 50% are classified as rural. For nationwide, urban and rural US, we reproduce our main results: namely, the average PM2.5 concentrations for the total population (ac), for racial/ethnic groups (df) and for income groups (gi), as well as disparities among racial/ethnic groups (jl). Similarities in the results across the national, urban and rural US are apparent and findings are consistent regardless of the urbanicity of ZCTAs. Note that in the case of the rural US, we only compute disparities (l) for the years in which the proportion of the population exposed to PM2.5 concentrations above the thresholds of interest is non-zero. For example, the proportion of the population in the rural US that is exposed to PM2.5 concentrations above T = 12 μg m−3 reaches near-zero levels in 2009, and hence disparities after this year are not computed.

Extended Data Fig. 8 Sensitivity of our main findings to estimates of PM2.5.

We replicated our analysis using an independent pollution data set43,44, and we show here the sensitivity of our findings to the new PM2.5 estimates. a, Replication of Extended Data Fig. 1b using the alternative data set. b, Replication of Extended Data Fig. 1d using the alternative data set. c, Replication of Fig. 4 using the alternative data set. Our main findings are robust and consistent across the two data sets. (Minor differences resulting from the different pollution estimates can be spotted, as expected.).

Supplementary information

Peer Review File

Supplementary Video 1

Average PM2.5 concentration levels across the US by ZCTA and by year from 2000 to 2016. The colour ramps from green to red represent PM2.5 levels of 0–7, 7–8, 8–9, 9–10, 10–11, 11–12, 12–30 µg m3. As the animation moves forward, we sequentially see the PM2.5 levels from 2000, 2001, 2002, up to 2016. Note that Hawaii and Alaska are not shown. Imagery provided courtesy of Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, ©OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community.

Supplementary Video 2

Average PM2.5 concentration levels for the ZCTAs where the racial/ethnic communities are overrepresented for the years 2000 to 2016. The colour ramps from green to red represent PM2.5 levels of 0–7, 7–8, 8–9, 9–10, 10–11, 11–12, 12–30 µg m3. At the top-left, we highlight ZCTAs where the Black population fraction is higher than 7%. At the top-right we highlight ZCTAs where the white population fraction is higher than 84%. At the bottom-left we highlight ZCTAs where the Hispanic/Latino population fraction is higher than 9%. At the bottom-right we highlight ZCTAs where the Asian population fraction is higher than 2%. As the animation moves forward, we sequentially see the PM2.5 levels from 2000, 2001, 2002, up to 2016. Note that Hawaii and Alaska are not shown. Imagery provided courtesy of Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, ©OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community.

Supplementary Video 3

An extension of Supplementary Video 2 to the Native American population. We show ZCTAs where the Native American population fraction is higher than 1%. Note that Hawaii and Alaska are not shown. Imagery provided courtesy of Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, ©OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community.

Supplementary Video 4

Average PM2.5 concentration levels across low- and high- income ZCTAs for the years 2000 to 2016. The colour ramps from green to red represent PM2.5 levels of 0–7, 7–8, 8–9, 9–10, 10–11, 11–12, 12–30 µg m3. On the left, we highlight low-income ZCTAs where the median household income is at the bottom 30%. On the right, we highlight high-income ZCTAs where the median household income is at the top 30%. As the animation moves forward, we sequentially see the PM2.5 levels from 2000, 2001, 2002, up to 2016. Note that Hawaii and Alaska are not shown. Imagery provided courtesy of Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, ©OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community.

Supplementary Video 5

Distribution of the racial/ethnic communities across levels of PM2.5 concentrations in 2000. The continuous colour ramps from light yellow to dark blue and represents the quantile of the percentage of racial/ethnic communities across ZCTAs from low to high. As the animation moves forward, we sequentially see which racial/ethnic communities are exposed to PM2.5 levels above 0, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 µg m3. Note that Hawaii and Alaska are not shown. Imagery provided courtesy of Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, ©OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community.

Supplementary Video 6

An extension of Supplementary Video 5 to the Native American population. Note that Hawaii and Alaska are not shown. Imagery provided courtesy of Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, ©OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community.

Supplementary Video 7

Distribution of the racial/ethnic communities across levels of PM2.5 concentrations in 2016. The continuous colour ramps from light yellow to dark blue and represents the quantile of the percentage of racial/ethnic communities across ZCTAs from low to high. As the animation moves forward, we sequentially see which racial/ethnic communities are exposed to PM2.5 levels above 0, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 µg m3. Note that Hawaii and Alaska are not shown. Imagery provided courtesy of Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, ©OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community.

Supplementary Video 8

An extension of Supplementary Video 7 to the Native American population. Note that Hawaii and Alaska are not shown. Imagery provided courtesy of Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, ©OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community.

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Jbaily, A., Zhou, X., Liu, J. et al. Air pollution exposure disparities across US population and income groups. Nature 601, 228–233 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04190-y

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