Summary

This Study by Ryan Johnson, Kim Ramsey-White, and Christina H. Fuller investigates the history and outcomes of companies in the metro Atlanta area which are considered, by the EPA, to be TRI’s. Toxic release inventories, or TRI’s, are companies which produce more than 25,000 pounds of toxic waste a year and/or companies that handle 10,000 pounds of toxic waste a year(Johnson et. al, 2016). In this study, they considered race and income to test for correlation with the increase of TRI’s in Atlanta, since previous studies have shown that TRI’s tend to be localized in urban areas(Johnson et. al, 2016). This study also looks at air quality as a dependent variable of race and income. 

The data on race and income comes from census data from 2000. The data on female graduation rates comes from the 2000 census as well. The data on toxic release inventories comes from the EPA. The data on air quality complaints come from the EPA as well. They are from 2006-2011. The results show that lower income households between $22,500 and $50,000 are a strong predictor of an increase in sites that release toxic waste. Additionally, 59.3% of TRI facilities are located in lower middle class neighborhoods. 

	This map shows, visually that many toxic sites are located in neighborhoods with a non-White population greater than 30.1%.
	This map shows, visually, that neighborhoods with a female graduation rate higher than 36.5% tend to have fewer toxic waste sites.

This study also quantified how income and race predict the increase of TRI’s and how strong this prediction is. Here is the chart: 

What this chart means: The adjusted odds ratio looks at the change odds of an increase in TRI facilities vs the change in percentage of population. The odds ratio for income looks at the odds of a TRI facility being in a neighborhood of some income range vs the odds of a TRI facility being in a neighborhood where the median income is greater than $77,500. Once income is accounted for, race is no longer a great predictor of TRI facility placement. However, the raw data suggests that race is correlated with TRI facilities. This implies that lower income neighborhoods are more likely to be Blacker. The question that isn’t answered: are these factors connected? Does racism, both system and individual, push Black neighborhoods into the lower income category? If so, is that different from purposefully targeting Black residences with toxic facilities? You have to decide the philosophical answers.