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Developing Toxic Metal Environmental Justice Indices (TM-EJIs) for Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Manganese Contamination in Private Drinking Wells in North Carolina
Toxic metal exposure via private drinking wells is an environmental health challenge in North Carolina (NC). Policies tainted by environmental racism shape who has access to public water supplies, with Black People, Indigenous People, and People of Color (BIPOC) often excluded from municipal service...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9707290/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36452066 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w14132088 |
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author | Gavino-Lopez, Noemi Eaves, Lauren A. Enggasser, Adam E. Fry, Rebecca C. |
author_facet | Gavino-Lopez, Noemi Eaves, Lauren A. Enggasser, Adam E. Fry, Rebecca C. |
author_sort | Gavino-Lopez, Noemi |
collection | PubMed |
description | Toxic metal exposure via private drinking wells is an environmental health challenge in North Carolina (NC). Policies tainted by environmental racism shape who has access to public water supplies, with Black People, Indigenous People, and People of Color (BIPOC) often excluded from municipal services. Thus, toxic metal exposure via private wells is an environmental justice (EJ) issue, and it is under-studied in NC. In this study, we developed four Toxic Metal Environmental Justice Indices (TM-EJIs) for inorganic arsenic (iAs), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and manganese (Mn) to quantitatively identify areas of environmental injustice in NC. TM-EJIs were calculated at the census tract level (n = 2038) as the product of the following: (1) number of well water tests with concentrations exceeding national standards, (2) percentage of the low-income and minority population, and (3) population density. Mn had the greatest proportion (25.17%) of positive TM-EJIs, which are indicative of socioeconomically disadvantaged groups exposed to toxic metals. Positive TM-EJIs, particularly for Pb and Mn, were primarily located in eastern NC. These results highlight several new counties of concern and can be used by public health professionals and state environmental agencies to prioritize remediation efforts and efforts to reduce environmental injustices. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9707290 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-97072902022-11-29 Developing Toxic Metal Environmental Justice Indices (TM-EJIs) for Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Manganese Contamination in Private Drinking Wells in North Carolina Gavino-Lopez, Noemi Eaves, Lauren A. Enggasser, Adam E. Fry, Rebecca C. Water (Basel) Article Toxic metal exposure via private drinking wells is an environmental health challenge in North Carolina (NC). Policies tainted by environmental racism shape who has access to public water supplies, with Black People, Indigenous People, and People of Color (BIPOC) often excluded from municipal services. Thus, toxic metal exposure via private wells is an environmental justice (EJ) issue, and it is under-studied in NC. In this study, we developed four Toxic Metal Environmental Justice Indices (TM-EJIs) for inorganic arsenic (iAs), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and manganese (Mn) to quantitatively identify areas of environmental injustice in NC. TM-EJIs were calculated at the census tract level (n = 2038) as the product of the following: (1) number of well water tests with concentrations exceeding national standards, (2) percentage of the low-income and minority population, and (3) population density. Mn had the greatest proportion (25.17%) of positive TM-EJIs, which are indicative of socioeconomically disadvantaged groups exposed to toxic metals. Positive TM-EJIs, particularly for Pb and Mn, were primarily located in eastern NC. These results highlight several new counties of concern and can be used by public health professionals and state environmental agencies to prioritize remediation efforts and efforts to reduce environmental injustices. 2022-07 2022-06-29 /pmc/articles/PMC9707290/ /pubmed/36452066 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w14132088 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Gavino-Lopez, Noemi Eaves, Lauren A. Enggasser, Adam E. Fry, Rebecca C. Developing Toxic Metal Environmental Justice Indices (TM-EJIs) for Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Manganese Contamination in Private Drinking Wells in North Carolina |
title | Developing Toxic Metal Environmental Justice Indices (TM-EJIs) for Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Manganese Contamination in Private Drinking Wells in North Carolina |
title_full | Developing Toxic Metal Environmental Justice Indices (TM-EJIs) for Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Manganese Contamination in Private Drinking Wells in North Carolina |
title_fullStr | Developing Toxic Metal Environmental Justice Indices (TM-EJIs) for Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Manganese Contamination in Private Drinking Wells in North Carolina |
title_full_unstemmed | Developing Toxic Metal Environmental Justice Indices (TM-EJIs) for Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Manganese Contamination in Private Drinking Wells in North Carolina |
title_short | Developing Toxic Metal Environmental Justice Indices (TM-EJIs) for Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Manganese Contamination in Private Drinking Wells in North Carolina |
title_sort | developing toxic metal environmental justice indices (tm-ejis) for arsenic, cadmium, lead, and manganese contamination in private drinking wells in north carolina |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9707290/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36452066 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w14132088 |
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