Mapping Health Fragility and Vulnerability in Air Pollution–Monitoring Networks in Dallas–Fort Worth

Abstract

Environmental air pollution remains a major contributor to negative health outcomes and mortality, but the relationship between socially vulnerable populations and air pollution is not well understood. Although air pollution potentially affects everyone, the combination of underlying health, socioeconomic, and demographic factors exacerbate the impact for socially vulnerable population groups, and the United States Clean Air Act (CAA) describes an obligation to protect these populations. This paper seeks to understand how air pollution monitor placement strategies and policy may neglect social vulnerabilities and therefore potentially underestimate exposure burdens in vulnerable populations. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess the association between being in an ozone-monitored area or not on 15 vulnerability indicators. It was found that the odds of not being in an ozone-monitored area (not covered, outside) increased for the predictor mobile homes (OR = 4.831, 95% CI [2.500–9.338] and OR = 8.066, 95% CI [4.390–14.820] for the 10 and 20 km spatial units, respectively) and decreased for the predictor multiunit structures (OR = 0.281, 95% CI [0.281–0.548] and OR = 0.130, 95% CI [0.037, 0.457] for the 10 and 20 km spatial units, respectively) and the predictor speaks English “less than well” (OR = 0.521, 95% CI [0.292–0.931] for 10 km). These results indicate that existing pollution sensor coverage may neglect areas with concentrations of highly vulnerable populations in mobile homes, and future monitoring placement policy decisions must work to address this imbalance.