Toxic hotspot
Toxic hotspots are locations where emissions from specific sources such as water or air pollution may expose local populations to elevated health risks, such as cancer.
Urban, highly populated areas around pollutant emitters such as old factories and waste storage sites are often toxic hotspots.
The toxic gas leaked from the understaffed Union Carbide plant killed up to 20,000 people and left 120,000 others chronically ill.[2] Bhopal continues to face pollution problems from the abandoned factory today.
A fine particulate matter such as diesel soot, which contributes to more than 3.2 million premature deaths around the world each year, is a significant problem.
Previous studies have shown disparities in exposure to pollution by race and/or income (cite one of the early readings from our syllabus, e.g. Mohai & Pellow, or Saha).
[8] Blacks and Latinos generally face more pollution than whites and Asians, and low-income communities bear a higher burden of risk than affluent ones.
[9] Residents in public housing, who are generally low-income with poor access to health care and cannot move to healthier neighborhoods, are highly affected by nearby refineries and chemical plants.
Evan Ringquist, a professor at Indiana University of Public and Environmental Affairs, states that there is little empirical evidence to suggest the emergence of hotspots.
[13] A Cedars-Sinai study found that prolonged exposure to particulate matter in air pollution in the Los Angeles Basin triggered inflammation and the appearance of cancer-related genes in the brains of rats.
[14] Located in the East San Francisco Bay, the neighborhood of West Oakland is home to mainly low-income African American and Latino residents who are exposed to a disproportionate amount of airborne toxins as compared to the rest of the surrounding Alameda County.
West Oakland's close proximity to highways and the Port of Oakland leave residents highly exposed to pollutants caused by moving and stationary sources of diesel pollution, thus leaving them at higher risk for health complications such as asthma and even shorter life expectancy than surrounding neighborhoods averages.
Compared to the State of California, West Oakland produces 90 times more diesel emission particulates per square mile per day.
[16] Effectiveness of efforts by these groups are multiplied by and increasing availability of environmental poverty lawyers who empower legislation in the legal system.
[19] Richmond, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, is an evolving, multi-cultural community that has transformed itself from an over-polluted industrial town to a pioneer in an environmental justice movement.
The first EJ movement in the area started in the late 1980s, when the activist tried to stop construction of a garbage incinerator near North Richmond.
[30] Sixteen years later, local citizen utilizes “Bucket Brigades” to document a handful of criteria air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3).This study involves citizens to actively collecting the samples of emissions from Chevron's refineries, especially during accidents, fires, leaks, and explosions.
The “samplers” then contact the Coordinator to check the bucket and perform the paperwork before submitting the samples to the Laboratory, in which the results will be reported to CBE, an environmental justice organization.
[33] Due to great forces from the local communities and fellow EJ activists in Richmond area, Chevron has been making progress to embrace cleaner environment.
[35] As Bonnoris argued, the burden of air pollution is disproportionally distributed among communities based on their racial, social or economic status.
[39] Wilmington, most of its residents are ethnic minorities, is possible to bear more environmental burden than other communities in Los Angeles because it is located next to several sources of air pollution.
[41] However, exposure to diesel particulate matter can cause “irritation to the eyes, nose, throat and lungs”, asthma, “exhaust immunological effects”, and cancer.
[44] The town of Hinkley, California, located in the Mojave Desert, had its groundwater contaminated with hexavalent chromium starting in 1952, resulting in a legal case against Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and a multimillion-dollar settlement in 1996.
Formerly known as the Nevada Proving Grounds,[49] the site was established on 11 January 1951 for the testing of nuclear devices, covering approximately 1,360 square miles (3,500 km2) of desert and mountainous terrain.
The city of Las Vegas experienced noticeable seismic effects, and the distant mushroom clouds, which could be seen from the downtown hotels, became tourist attractions.
From 1996 to 2012, a secret joint operation of Kazakh, Russian, and American nuclear scientists and engineers secured the waste plutonium in the tunnels of the mountains.
