Background: Populations of color and low-income communities are often disproportionately burdened by exposures to various environmental contaminants, including air pollution. Some air pollutants have carcinogenic properties which are particularly problematic in South Carolina (SC), a state that consistently has high rates of cancer mortality for all sites. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of sociodemographic factors on estimated cancer risk associated with air toxics in SC with a particular focus on comparing differences in cancer risk in urban and rural areas.
Methods: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) risk data for varying risk categories were linked by tract ID and analyzed with demographic variables from the 2000 census using R. The average change in cancer risk from all sources by demographic variable was quantified using simple linear regression. Spatial methods were employed using ArcGIS 10 to assess the distribution of all source risk at the census tract level. The relative risk estimates of high cancer risk from all sources and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated between the first quartile and later three quartiles while the variance in the percentage of high cancer risk between quartile groups was tested using Pearson’s chi-square.
Results: The average total cancer risk was 26.8 ppl/million. The risk from on-road sources was significantly higher than the risk from other sources (excluding background risk). The percentage of African-Americans with less than a high school diploma and percentage of urban area explained 49% of the variation in cancer risk. Within urban areas (100% urban), a one percent increase in African-Americans increased cancer risk by 0.12 ppl/million which became 6 times higher after accounting for all areas (0.021 ppl/million, rural and urban areas combined).
Conclusion: Based on our findings, there are substantial disparities in cancer risk within SC that are mostly attributable to on-road and area sources. Areas that had predominately urban landscapes or were mostly composed of African American populations had disparities in cancer risk which implies that cancer prevention efforts should focus on how to reduce mobile and area emissions in non-White and urban communities.
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