Race, Air Pollution Exposure and Infant Health in Texas

The three essays in this book examine racial disparities in infant health outcomes and exposure to air pollution in Texas. The first essay contributes to the "weathering" literature, which has shown that disparities in infant health outcomes between non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic white women in the U.S. widen with age. In this study, I find that both black and Hispanic women in Texas "weather" earlier than white mothers and that differential weathering appears to be mediated by racial disparities in the distribution and response to socioeconomic risk factors. The second essay extends the statistical environmental justice literature by examining the distribution of toxic air pollution across infants in Texas. I find that, within Texas cities, being black or Hispanic is a significant predictor of how much pollution one is exposed to at birth. In the third essay, I ask whether the U.S. EPA's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators data might be used to assess the effects of little-studied toxic air pollutants on infant health outcomes. I conclude, based on lack of correspondence to established results, that better exposure data for toxic air pollutants are needed.

Autorentext

Helen Scharber, assistant professor of economics at Hampshire College, holds a B.A. in economics from Knox College, an M.A. in environmental politics from Keele University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts. Her research interests lie at the intersection of political economy, environmental justice and health.