Polluted Communities
Communities can be polluted through catastrophic exposures like nuclear-reactor accidents; others through the regular release of toxic chemicals from nearby industrial areas; and others through the migration of pollution through air and water.
Some communities experience high-level catastrophic exposures to carcinogens: Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the U.S.-detonated atomic bombs; Chernobyl and Three Mile Island after nuclear reactor accidents; Sevesco, Italy after the accidental release of dioxin. In each of these cases, these mass exposures of young women and girls led to increased breast cancer rates two to three decades later.[1],[2],[3]
Most polluted communities, however, can't point to a single catastrophic event. Instead, these communities are situated near factories, waste-disposal sites, agricultural areas or other sources that constantly or regularly spew toxic chemicals or radiation into the environment. Some of these sources are recorded by the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) database. In many cases, sources of pollution are clustered in a small area, meaning that communities near one TRI site are often near several other pollution sources.[4] Research suggests that mixtures of chemicals may multiply risk. In addition, TRI facilities are more likely to be located near communities with higher proportions of people of color and people with lower socioeconomic status.[5],[6]
Since many pollutants from these sources make their way into water or air, which allow the pollutants to travel far distances, these concerns are not limited to the immediate area, although exposures are higher closer to factories and waste disposal sites. Pollutants may accumulate at significant levels in areas far from where they are used. For instance, high levels of some chemicals tend to move more easily into colder waters. As a result, animals and humans in colder parts of the world—often in areas of the world that are less industrialized—experience very high levels of exposure to chemicals from thousands of miles away.
- Pesatori AC, Consonni D, RubagottiM, Grillo P, Bertazzi PA (2009). Cancer incidence in the population exposed to to dioxin after the "Seveso accident": Twenty years of follow-up. Environmental Health 8:39 doi:10.1186/1476-069X-8-39.
- Pukkala E, Kesminiene A, Poliakov E et al. (2006). Breast cancer in Belarus and Ukraine after the Chernobyl accident. International Journal of Cancer 119: 651-658.
- Land CD (1997). Radiation and breast cancer risk. Progress in Clinical Biological Research 396:115124.
- Perlin SA, Wong D, Sexton K. (2001). Residential Proximity to Industrial Sources of Air Pollution: Interrelationships among Race, Poverty, and Age. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 51, 406-421.
- Perlin SA, Wong D, Sexton K. (2001). Residential Proximity to Industrial Sources of Air Pollution: Interrelationships among Race, Poverty, and Age. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 51, 406-421.
- Mohai P, Lantz PM, Morenoff J, House JS, Mero RP (2009). Racial and socioeconomic disparities in residential proximity to polluting industrial facilities: Evidence from the Americans’ Changing Lives Study. American Journal of Public Health 99 (S3): S649-S656.
