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Environmental justice: A contrary finding for the case of high-voltage electric power transmission lines

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 20, pages 237–244 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Environmental justice is the consideration of whether minority and/or lower-income residents in a geographic area are likely to have disproportionately higher exposures to environmental toxins than those living elsewhere. Such situations have been identified for a variety of factors, such as air pollution, hazardous waste, water quality, noise, residential crowding, and housing quality. This study investigates the application of this concept to high-voltage electric power transmission lines (HVTL), which some perceive as a health risk because of the magnetic fields they generate, and also as esthetically unpleasing. We mapped all 345 kV and higher voltage HVTL in New York State and extracted and summarized proximate US Census sociodemographic and housing characteristic data into four categories on the basis of distances from HVTL. Contrary to our expectation, people living within 2000 ft from HVTL were more likely to be exposed to magnetic fields, white, of higher income, more educated and home owners, than those living farther away, particularly in urban areas. Possible explanations for these patterns include the desire for the open space created by the rights-of-way, the preference for new homes/subdivisions that are often located near HVTL, and moving closer to HVTL before EMFs were considered a risk. This study suggests that environmental justice may not apply to all environmental risk factors and that one must be cautious in generalizing. In addition, it shows the utility of geographical information system methodology for summarizing information from extremely large populations, often a challenge in epidemiology.

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Acknowledgements

The early phase of this study was funded by the Empire State Electric Energy Research Corporation (ESEERCO), and later work by the National Cancer Institute (R03CA77152), NIEHS sponsored UMDNJ Center for Environmental Exposures and Disease (P30ES005022) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U61/ATU272387 and U19/EH000102). The majority of the writing of the manuscript was completed while Dr. Wartenberg was a Libra Scholar in the Department of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine. We thank Sylvia Brown, Phil Doyle and Janet Hwang for technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Environmental Epidemiology, Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, UMDNJ—Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 170 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA

    Daniel Wartenberg & Gerald Harris

  2. Division of Epidemiology, UMDNJ—School of Public Health, 683 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, 08854, New Jersey, USA

    Daniel Wartenberg

  3. Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University, 33 Livingston Avenue, Suite 100, New Brunswick, 08901-1958, New Jersey, USA

    Michael R Greenberg

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  1. Daniel Wartenberg
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Correspondence to Daniel Wartenberg.

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Wartenberg, D., Greenberg, M. & Harris, G. Environmental justice: A contrary finding for the case of high-voltage electric power transmission lines. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 20, 237–244 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2009.11

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