Assessing disparities in environmental hazards in Chicago, Illinois

A disproportionate number of environmental hazards in minority and socially disadvantaged communities have been documented. Prior studies have shown that Chicago, IL, the largest city in Cook County, is highly segregated by race and socio-economic class. The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), managed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is the database used as the source of pollution. This study explores the spatial patterns of TRI facilities by location, industry type and amount of total onsite releases (TOR) in the city of Chicago for two decades (1990 – 2010); and assesses the association between these TRI patterns, neighborhood racial composition and socio-economic status (SES). Geospatial applications were used to explore changes in TRI distributions with time. Cluster analysis, interpolation of TOR, density mapping and spatial queries were employed to identify areas of high and low risk and to examine differences in racial and socially disadvantage areas. The use of geospatial techniques allows for a better understanding of environmental hazards. Preliminary results show a general decrease in the number of facilities and amount of total onsite releases from TRI facilities in Cook County, but high-emission areas had higher proportions of African Americans and those of low SES. This study will initially conduct exploratory data analysis to visualize possible patterns with TRI sites and health disparity indicators. Using prediction models such as kernel density will allow us to see a possible relationship between certain types of industries and their location in at-risk communities.