Spatial associations between marginalization, ambient benzene pollution, and health outcomes: An investigation of environmental inequality across the Etobicoke-York region of Toronto, Canada

Keywords: Environmental Justice, Environmental Inequality, Environmental Health, Transportation-Related Air Pollution, Exposure Analysis, Spatial Analysis, Land-Use Regression, GIS
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 31

Abstract

Exposure to transportation-related air pollution (TRAP) is of concern in Canada because of the associated adverse health outcomes, which together contribute to elevated rates of mortality among Canadians. The health risks of TRAP exposure are not born equally. When assessing exposure, it is essential to consider environmental inequality - a phenomenon in which specific populations, typically disadvantaged or minority, are disproportionality burdened with greater environmentally-driven stressors, related health outcomes, and susceptibility to poor health. Environmental inequality exposure research is limited in Canada. Also, most research on TRAP exposure focuses on Criteria Air Pollutants, despite recent reports of elevated concentrations of ambient benzene for many Canadian cities, a component of gasoline and a Group 1 carcinogen. I will use passive monitoring techniques, chemical analyses, and land use regression to model the spatial distribution of ambient benzene, BTEX, and nitrogen oxides in the Etobicoke-York region of Toronto, Canada. I will then use spatial autoregressive models to examine associations between the modelled pollution concentrations and levels of marginalization, derived from the 2016 Ontario Marginalization Index, across dissemination areas (DAs) in the Etobicoke-York region. Lastly, I will estimate differences in health outcomes among the DA populations using established dose-response relationships of the air pollutants to health outcomes, thereby showing environmentally-driven health disparities. My research will develop the first high-resolution exposure risk estimates of ambient benzene pollution for the entirety of the Etobicoke-York region, in addition to heading environmental inequality exposure research in Canada related to ambient benzene pollution.