The title of this article is “Disproportionate Proximity to Environmental Health Hazards: Methods, Models, and Measurement”, it can be found in the American Public Health Association. The article was written by Jayajit Chakraborty, Juliana A. Maantay, and Jean D. Brender. Several studies discussing environmental justice or a similar topic were analyzed – the hazards examined and analytical techniques used in each study. Environmental justice is the disproportionate distribution of environmental “goods” and “bads”, with the burden of the bads and the shortage of goods falling mainly on ethnic minorities and lower income populations. The purpose of building a database filled with environmental justice research studies is to explore the different spatial techniques used to analyze the disproportionate proximity to hazards and measure environmental justice. The article reviews the use of the five most popular techniques. The one that best interested me is the “Pollution Plume Modeling”, the other techniques explored lack the ability to accurately estimate the dispersal of pollutants. Buffer zones are not as accurate because it usually depends on the analyst to set an arbitrary radius that may not be correct. Spatial coincidence analysis is another technique that isn’t as accurate, this method uses the number of hazard sources within a zip code or census tract to measure hazardous chemical exposure. This method doesn’t represent the actual size or shape of the area exposed. However, Pollution Plume Modeling uses data on chemical emissions and local meteorological conditions to analyze the dispersal of pollutants. The combined data turns out a hazard release parameter that can delineate the boundaries of a potentially exposed area. Spatially a “footprint” is created, there may be a ring buffer included; this is when ground- level concentrations are ranked. Where this technique falls short is the lack of accounting for ground and water contamination, but because my topic analyzes pesticides and their wind dispersal patterns the technique seems ideal.

Chakraborty, J., Maantay, J. A., & Brender, J. D. (2011). Disproportionate proximity to environmental health hazards: methods, models, and measurement. American Journal of Public Health, 101(S1), S27-S36