| Environmental Injustice in North Carolina's Hog Industry Abstract 1Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
2Concerned Citizens of Tillery, Tillery, North Carolina, USA Abstract
Rapid growth and the concentration of hog production in North Carolina have raised concerns of a disproportionate impact of pollution and offensive odors on poor and nonwhite communities. We analyzed the location and characteristics of 2,514 intensive hog operations in relation to racial, economic, and water source characteristics of census block groups, neighborhoods with an average of approximately 500 households each. We used Poisson regression to evaluate the extent to which relationships between environmental justice variables and the number of hog operations persisted after consideration of population density. There are 18.9 times as many hog operations in the highest quintile of poverty as compared to the lowest ; however, adjustment for population density reduces the excess to 7.2. Hog operations are approximately 5 times as common in the highest three quintiles of the percentage nonwhite population as compared to the lowest, adjusted for population density. The excess of hog operations is greatest in areas with both high poverty and high percentage nonwhites. Operations run by corporate integrators are more concentrated in poor and nonwhite areas than are operations run by independent growers. Most hog operations, which use waste pits that can contaminate groundwater, are located in areas with high dependence on well water for drinking. Disproportionate impacts of intensive hog production on people of color and on the poor may impede improvements in economic and environmental conditions that are needed to address public health in areas which have high disease rates and low access to medical care as compared to other areas of the state. Key words: African Americans, environmental health, environmental justice, epidemiology, geographic information systems, rural health. Environ Health Perspect 108:225-231 (2000) . [Online 8 February 2000] http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2000/108p225-231wing/ abstract.html Address correspondence to S. Wing, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, CB#7400, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC USA 27599-7400. Telephone: (919) 966-7416. Fax: (919) 966-2089. E-mail: steve_wing@unc.edu We thank E. Gregory for analytical programming and data management, C. Hanchette for geographic information systems programming, E. Brun for cartography, and D.M. St. George for analytical consultation. This research was supported by grant R25-ES08206-04 under the Environmental Justice: Partnerships for Communication program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Received 14 July 1999 ; accepted 29 September 1999.
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