Douglas L. Anderton

Environmental Equity: The Demographics of Dumping

Research addressing “environmental equity” and “environmental racism” claims that facilities for treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous wastes (TSDFs) are located disproportionately in minority areas. In the first comprehensive study of TSDFs to use census tract-level data, we find no nationally consistent and statistically significant differences between the racial or ethnic composition of tracts which contain commercial TSDFs and those which do not. TSDFs are more likely to be found in tracts with Hispanic groups, primarily in regions with the greatest percentage of Hispanics. Different geographic units of analysis elaborate on, but are consistent with, these results.

Hazardous Waste Facilities "Environmental Equity" Issues in Metropolitan Areas

Recent widely publicized studies claim facilities for treatment, storage, and disposal of hazard ous wastes (TSDFs) are located in areas with higher than average proportions of minorities, thereby exposing minorities to relatively greater levels of potential risk. These claims have influenced national policies and public perceptions. This article revisits those claims in the first national study of TSDFs to use census tract-level data, finding no consistent and statistically significant differences in the racial or ethnic composition of tracts that contain commercial TSDFs and those that do not. Aggregating tracts surrounding TSDF tract locations, the authors find that the claims of the previous studies rest on using larger areal aggregates (zip code areas) on the peripheries of which the densities of minority populations are higher. The authors conclude that whether minorities are exposed to greater risk depends on how distance from TSDF sites is related to that nsk, an issue on which there is currently little knowledge.

Sexual harassment: organizational context and diffuse status

Data from a large survey of federal employees is utilized to compare three broad competing perspectives that suggest effects on sexual harassment within organizations. Three different viewpoints stress power differentials, minority status, and diffuse master status characteristics. Results of the study indicate that intraorganizational theories emphasizing either power inequalities or work group compositional heterogeneities are unable to account for the reported sexual harassment without considering diffuse master status characteristics developed and maintained outside the organization.

Intergenerational transmission of relative fertility and life course patterns

The direct relationship between fertility and fertility behavior of mothers and daughters was examined. It was hypothesized that the relative propensity to control family sizes in 1 generation is transmitted to the following generation and that transmission of fertility levels across generations is in part a result of the transmission of specific fertility-determining life-course behaviors across generations. The data were derived from the Mormon Historical Demography projects set of computerized family geneologies. To assess the importance of cohort effects the completed fertility of 1st daughters and last daughters was compared by mothers completed family size and mothers birth cohort. Daughters who were the last born tended to have lower fertility than 1st born daughters. For 1st born daughters a positive association between mothers and daughters family size was confirmed. The distribution of mothers and daughters relative to the median births for their respective cohorts was examined. Each woman was allocated to 1 of 3 groups: low -- completed fertility was 2 or more children less than the median for all women in the birth cohort; medium -- completed fertility was equal to + or - 1 child from the median for other women in the same birth cohort; and high -- completed fertility was 2 or more children greater than the median for all women in the birth cohort. It was expected that a greater proportion of daughters than mothers would have relatively low fertility. For the 1830-39 cohort only 15% of the mothers had relatively low fertility but 25% of their daughters did; for other mother cohorts the comparisons were 15:26 18:26 and 15:23. It also was expected that the daughters of low fertility mothers would be more likely to have relatively low fertility. For low fertility mothers in the 1830-39 cohort 33% of daughters had relatively low fertility; 24% fell in the relatively high fertility group. The expected difference was found for the 1840-49 cohort of mothers and for the 1860-69 cohort but not for the 1850-59 cohort. It also was expected that the daughters of relatively high fertility mothers would have relatively high fertility. 33% of daughters with high fertility mothers in the 1st cohort had relatively high fertility; only 23% had low fertility. This pattern was consistent for each of the other cohorts of mothers. Tabular and multivariate analyses supported the strong possibility that both fertility behavior and indirect associations regarding timing of fertility-related life course events were transmitted intergenerationally. Cohort-specific influences were substantial. The analyses confirmed both the hypothesized intergenerational fertility association and the hypothesized cohort-specific effects.

Birth spacing and fertility limitation: a behavioral analysis of a nineteenth century frontier population.

Our analysis of changing birth interval distributions over the course of a fertility transition from natural to controlled fertility has examined three closely related propositions. First, within both natural fertility populations (identified at the aggregate level) and cohorts following the onset of fertility limitation, we hypothesized that substantial groups of women with long birth intervals across the individually specified childbearing careers could be identified. That is, even during periods when fertility behavior at the aggregate level is consistent with a natural fertility regime, birth intervals at all parities are inversely related to completed family size. Our tabular analysis enables us to conclude that birth spacing patterns are parity dependent; there is stability in CEB-parity specific mean and birth interval variance over the entire transition. Our evidence does not suggest that the early group of women limiting and spacing births was marked by infecundity. Secondly, the transition appears to be associated with an increasingly larger proportion of women shifting to the same spacing schedules associated with smaller families in earlier cohorts. Thirdly, variations in birth spacing by age of marriage indicate that changes in birth intervals over time are at least indirectly associated with age of marriage, indicating an additional compositional effect. The evidence we have presented on spacing behavior does not negate the argument that parity-dependent stopping behavior was a powerful factor in the fertility transition. Our data also provide evidence of attempts to truncate childbearing. Specifically, the smaller the completed family size, the longer the ultimate birth interval; and ultimate birth intervals increase across cohorts controlling CEB and parity. But spacing appears to represent an additional strategy of fertility limitation. Thus, it may be necessary to distinguish spacing and stopping behavior if one wishes to clarify behavioral patterns within a population (Edlefsen, 1981; Friedlander et al., 1980; Rodriguez and Hobcraft, 1980). Because fertility transition theories imply increased attempts to limit family sizes, it is important to examine differential behavior within subgroups achieving different family sizes. It is this level of analysis which we have attempted to achieve in utilizing parity-specific birth intervals controlled by children ever born.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Surface Properties Dictate Uptake, Distribution, Excretion, and Toxicity of Nanoparticles in Fish

There are currently more than 1000 consumer products based on nanomaterials.[1] As a consequence, nanomaterials will inevitably be released into the environment during the manufacture, use, and disposal of these products. Consequently, multiple concerns related to unforeseen health and environmental hazards of nanomaterials have been raised.[2] Many studies on the environmental fate, behavior, bioavailability and toxicity of manufactured nanomaterials have been carried out to address what these hazards might be, but the results are far from conclusive.[3] Currently, carbon-based materials (e.g. fullerenes[4] and carbon nanotubes[4c, 5]), metal and metal oxides (e.g. silver[6] and TiO2[7]) and semiconductor materials (e.g. quantum dots[8]) are the most studied nanomaterials. Investigations show that nanomaterial size,[6, 9] shape,[9] surface chemistry,[4b, 10] and surface area[11] all play a role in determining the toxicity of nanomaterials in model biological and environmental systems.[3a] For example, Chan et al.[9] has demonstrated the size dependence of cellular uptake, and our group[10b] has shown the role of surface charge on uptake.

Demographics of Dumping II: A National Environmental Equity Survey and the Distribution of Hazardous Materials Handlers *

Using a national survey of facilities governed by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), we examine the sociospatial distribution of a much larger group of hazardous materials handlers than did previous environmental equity studies. Overall we find that RCRA-governed facilities are more likely to be sited in working-class neighborhoods with lower percentages of minority residents. We do not find evidence of stark environmental inequities. RCRA facilities, however, are close to neighborhoods with a higher percentage of minority residents. And in nonmetropolitan areas, they are slightly more likely to be located in neighborhoods with a higher percentage of black residents.

Determination of free Bisphenol A (BPA) concentrations in breast milk of U.S. women using a sensitive LC/MS/MS method

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a synthetic, endocrine-disrupting compound. Free BPA has been detected in human samples indicating that humans are internally exposed to estrogenically active BPA. The purpose of this study was to develop a sensitive method to detect free BPA in human breast milk. BPA was isolated from the milk of 21 nursing mothers in the U.S. by solid-phase extraction. It was then derivatized to improve sensitivity and subsequently analyzed by ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Free BPA was detected in 62% of the milk samples (≤ 0.22-10.8 ng mL(-1), median 0.68 ng mL(-1), mean 3.13 ng mL(-1)). No statistical difference in BPA concentrations was observed between women with a low or high Body Mass Index (BMI) (<30 (n=11) and>30 (n=10), respectively). However, there was a significant association between BPA concentration and race. Caucasian women had significantly higher levels of free BPA in their breast milk than non-Caucasian women (mean=4.44 (n=14) and 0.52 (n=7), respectively; p<0.05). The difference between races could be attributed to variations in exposure, lifestyle or metabolism and suggests that certain populations should take extra precautions to limit BPA exposure, particularly during pregnancy and lactation.

Environmental Equity in Superfund Demographics of the Discovery and Prioritization of Abandoned Toxic Sites

This article presents findtngs of the first national tract-level analysis of the distribution of residential characteristics, including the percentage of selected minorities and socioeconomically disadvan taged groups, in relation to uncontrolled toxic waste sites (i. e., CERCLIS and NPL sites). In contrast to prevailing notions, the authors find that uncontrolled toxic waste sites are not disproportionately located in minority neighborhoods or neighborhoods of soctoeconomtcally disadvantaged residents. However, multivariate analyses of site distribution and a hazard regression analysis of the site prioritization process suggest that communities with a higher percentage of Black residents are less likely to receive NPL (National Priorities List) designation, delaying potential remediation. Biases in the prioritization process are, however, substantively small.

Grammars of Death An Analysis of Nineteenth-Century Literal Causes of Death from the Age of Miasmas to Germ Theory

Historical mortality analysis is often confounded by changing disease environments, diagnostic criteria, and terminology. Recorded causes of death are shaped by these local and historical contexts. We analyze changing literal causes of death during the shift from miasmatic to germ theories of disease using death records from two Massachusetts towns for selected years spanning 1850 to 1912. This analysis demonstrates that (1) International Classification of Diseases (ICD) classifications are more stable, yet potentially less informative, than the literal causes recorded in death accounts, (2) recorded causes of death often include additional qualifications and elaborations beyond basic literal causes of death, and the use of such qualifiers rose dramatically during the late nineteenth century, (3) social biases are clearly evident in the extent to which causes of death were further described or qualified, and (4) the additional descriptive qualification of deaths during this period of often ambiguous historical causes of death can potentially aid in efforts to classify causes of death and derive robust estimates of cause-specific mortality trends.