Examining the geographical distribution of air pollution disparities across different racial and ethnic groups: Incorporating workplace addresses

Abstract

Background: Most previous studies on air pollution exposure disparities among racial and ethnic groups in the US have been limited to residence-based exposure and have given little consideration to population mobility and spatial patterns of residences, workplaces, and air pollution. This study aimed to examine air pollution exposure disparities by racial and ethnic groups while explicitly accounting for both the work-related activity of the population and localized spatial patterns of residential segregation, clustering of workplaces, and variability of air pollutant concentration.

Method: In the present study, we assessed population-level exposure to air pollution using tabulated residence and workplace addresses of formally employed workers from LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES) data at the census tract level across eight Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Combined with annual-averaged predictions for three air pollutants (PM_2.5, NO₂, O₃), we investigated racial and ethnic disparities in air pollution exposures at home and workplaces using pooled (i.e., across eight MSAs) and regional (i.e., with each MSA) data.

Results: We found that non-White groups consistently had the highest levels of exposure to all three air pollutants, at both their residential and workplace locations. Narrower exposure disparities were found at workplaces than residences across all three air pollutants in the pooled estimates, due to substantially lower workplace segregation than residential segregation. We also observed that racial disparities in air pollution exposure and the effect of considering work-related activity in the exposure assessment varied by region, due to both the levels and patterns of segregation in the environments where people spend their time and the local heterogeneity of air pollutants.

Conclusions: The results indicated that accounting for workplace activity illuminates important variation between home- and workplace-based air pollution exposure among racial and ethnic groups, especially in the case of NO₂. Our findings suggest that consideration of both activity patterns and place-based exposure is important to improve our understanding of population-level air pollution exposure disparities, and consequently to health disparities that are closely linked to air pollution exposure.

Keywords: Air pollution; Exposure disparity; Race and ethnicity; Spatial patterns; Workplace address.