It is clear that historically redlined neighborhoods are burdened by many environmental hazards. (17,22) While these previous studies suggest coexposure to a wide array of environmental contaminants, they have investigated hazards independently. No studies have specifically investigated whether multiple environmental pollutants are likely to overlap in historically redlined neighborhoods. Testing this hypothesis would demonstrate that historically redlined neighborhoods are disproportionately burdened by cumulative environmental impacts. Overlooking the role of historical policies that shaped social stressors (e.g., discrimination, poverty) that led to cumulative environmental inequities may under-characterize risk assessments of community health today and reduce the impact of environmental regulations.
Using nationwide data on multiple, overlapping environmental hazards, the objectives of this study were to (1) investigate whether historically redlined neighborhoods across the US are exposed to cumulative environmental impacts, (2) identify which hazards are the most pervasive, and (3) determine which US regions and cities experience the largest disparities in cumulative environmental impacts between historically redlined and nonredlined neighborhoods. Overall, this study sought to extend the evidence on historical redlining and environmental inequities
by investigating whether historically redlined neighborhoods are exposed to multiple environmental hazards simultaneously rather than being linked independently to many environmental hazards.
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