A gray area of environmental justice.


e e~~~

approved by the end of January 1995. If
the program is approved, Scripps would
immediately begin installing the speakers,
and transmissions could begin that spring,
Rogers said.

A Move for the Better
A change in where they live may change
the outcome of a second pregnancy for
women whose first child was born with a
birth defect, according to a recent study
published in the July 7 New England
Journal ofMedicine.

The odds of having a second child with
a birth defect are small to begin with-
about 2.2% in the Norwegian sample.
However, the study, conducted by epi-
demiologists Rolv Terje and Rolv
Skjaerven in Norway and Allen Wilcox at
the NIEHS, revealed that among women
who had given birth to one baby with a
defect, those who continued to live in the
same town had almost 12 times the risk of
giving birth to a second baby with the
same defect. However, if these women
moved to a new town, the risk dropped to
five times the normal risk. The study also
showed a slightly increased risk of deliver-
ing a second child with a different defect
from the first for women who remained in
the same town.

The study examined birth records of
first and second infants born to almost
400,000 women in Norway between 1967
and 1989. Twenty-three categories of iso-
lated defects and a category of multiple
defects including, for example, cleft lip and
palate, limb defects, genital defects, anen-
cephaly, respiratory system defects, and
central nervous system defects were studied.
One surprising finding of the study is that
moving to a new town correlated with a
decreased risk of birth defects more than
the second child being fathered by a differ-
ent man. With a different father the risk of
defects in the second child fell to 7.3.

The authors say the study does not cast
light on any causes for decreased risk, but
when you move, said Wilcox, "you've
changed some things: where you work, the
house you live in...." Wilcox said that the
study is more promising for guiding future
research rather than for suggesting preven-
tive measures. The researchers concluded
that there is strong indirect evidence that
environmental factors contribute to the
familial risk of birth defects and that
"important environmental teratogens have
yet to be discovered."

A Gray Area of Environmental
Justice
The issue of environmental justice is hard-
ly black and white, especially in the realm

Risk of similar and dissimilar birth defects in second infants of mothers with an affected first infant

Second infant

Defect in Similar defect Dissimilar defect
first infant No. at risk Observed Expected Relative risk Observed Expected Relative risk
Clubfoot 2784 100 14.7 7.3 59 42.0 1.4
Genital defect 1447 25 5.1 4.9 35 24.2 1.5
Limb defect 957 25 2.2 11.3 41 17.1 2.4
Cardiac defect 567 6 1.0 6.0 11 10.5 1.1
Total cleft lip 436 18 0.6 31.4 10 8.2 1.2
Isolated cleft palate 144 3 0.1 44.5 2 2.9 0.7
All combined 9192 201 26.4 7.6 249 164.6 1.5

Effect of a change in municipality or partner on the risk of a birth defect in the second infant similar to the
defect in the first infant

Similar birth defect in second infant
Mothers with affected Mothers with normal

first infants first infants
Partner Municipality Cases Total Cases Total Relative Risk

Same Same 115 4200 454 192,990 11.6
Same Different 41 2332 310 89,588 5.1
Different Same 16 985 99 44,196 7.3
Different Different 10 749 78 28,861 4.9

Source: Lie et al., NewEngland Joumal ofMedicine (vol. 331, p. 3).

of research. Several studies surfaced in the
late 1970s and 1980s providing evidence
that polluting and waste facilities are more
likely to be located in low-income and
minority neighborhoods. This information
has prompted widespread political action,
but the methodologies used in these stud-
ies are now being challenged.

President Clinton issued an executive
order on environmental justice, and Con-
gress is also focusing on this issue, debating
several bills that would guarantee environ-
mental equity. But some researchers are
questioning whether such political atten-
tion to the issue is warranted. Two recent
studies cast doubt on the empirical evi-
dence supporting the arguments of envi-
ronmental justice advocates.

One of the studies, conducted at the
Center for the Study of American Business
at Washington University, examined envi-
ronmental justice policy. "Our study is an
overview of the issue from a policy per-
spective," said Christopher Boerner, who
worked with Thomas Lambert on the
study. Their findings indicate that further
research should be conducted on the issue.

Boerner and Lambert, research interns
at the center, analyzed the studies that pro-
vide evidence of environmental racism and
detected several flaws in the research.
These included inadequacies in how mi-
nority communities were defined and in
population densities. The researchers said
that defining minority communities as
areas where the percentage of nonwhite
residents exceeds the percentage of minori-
ties in the entire population means that a

community could be considered minority
even if the majority of its residents are
white. They also pointed out that most of
the studies are based on ZIP-code data,
which are not necessarily accurate when
examined on a smaller geographic unit.

Boerner and Lambert also argued that
environmental justice studies imply rather
than state actual risks posed by polluting
and waste facilities since there is a lack of
significant scientific data linking negative
health effects with proximity to polluting
and waste facilities. And finally, the study
says that the research on environmental
justice fails to establish that discriminatory
siting and permitting practices caused cur-
rent environmental inequities. The studies
identify current economic and race charac-
teristics of communities located around
industrial and waste facilities, but they do
not consider community conditions when
the facilities were sited.

Boerner and Lambert's research sup-
ports one of their major concerns in regard
to environmental justice: that policymakers
may be acting too quickly on a subject that
needs further research and evaluation.

Boerner and Lambert also examined
alternative ways of approaching environ-
mental justice as an issue, as opposed to
current suggested solutions. Most of these
current remedies include legislation that
would prohibit or discourage construction
of polluting and waste facilities in certain
low-income and minority neighborhoods.
Boerner and Lambert recommended that
policymakers explore remedies such as
compensation approaches, in which those

Volume 102, Number 10, October 1994 817



M-
who share the benefits of the undesirable
facility provide compensation to those who
host the facility. The compensation could
be in the form of direct payment to indi-
viduals in the community, or through
investments to improve the community.
Boerner and Lambert also detailed benefits
that communities could reap by support-
ing the construction of polluting and waste
facilities in their areas. Among these are the
economic benefits a facility could bring to
a disadvantaged neighborhood, such as the
creation of jobs. This type of compensa-
tion approach would allow communities to
be involved in the negotiating process.

Early results of an ongoing empirical
study at the University of Massachusetts
also cast doubt on claims that hazardous
waste facilities are more likely to be located
in low-income and minority neighbor-
hoods. The researchers, Douglas Anderton
and Andy Anderson, both sociology pro-
fessors, released a preliminary study reveal-
ing that commercial, off-site treatment,
storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs) are
actually more likely to be located in white,
working-class, industrial neighborhoods.
The two-year study examined census
bureau tracts, groupings of 4,000 people,
rather than ZIP-code data, which had been
used in many of the previous studies.
Tracts containing commercial hazardous
waste TSDFs were compared to tracts
without TSDFs.

The researchers had expected to find
results similar to previous studies on envi-.
ronmental justice. "We were all pretty sur-
prised, including the waste industry,"
Anderton said. "In retrospect we shouldn't
have been, because what we found was that
these facilities were not much different than
any other industrial facilities." They found
that the neighborhoods surrounding TSDFs
were made up of white, working-class peo-
ple, similar to most communities located
around other types of industrial facilities.

The study has been criticized by envi-
ronmental justice advocates because the
pre-1990 census tract data that was ana-
lyzed excludes rural areas. They claim that
if rural areas were assessed, the results
could be different. However, Anderton
says ongoing research involves 1990 census
data that includes rural areas, and the
results appear to be similar.

Anderton and Anderson do admit that
there are limitations to this study. For
example, only commercial, off-site TSDFs
were studied; Superfund sites, closed
TSDFs, and on-site storage were excluded.
They also cited other sources of environ-
mental risk not studied that could unfairly
burden minority and poor populations,
including lead paint, soil contamination,
and air pollution.

"Some of the limitations of this

research should be noted so the results of
this particular study will not be used to
undermine the general cause of environ-
mental justice and equity," the authors
said. They summarized the study by say-
ing, "a great deal of work remains to be
done."

Anderton said they will continue to
research the issue, and future studies will
include Toxic Release Inventory data,
Superfund sites, comparisons of public and
private facilities, and analyses of how sites
change over time.

A Nice Cup of Tea
Animal studies prove it. Folklore heralds it.
And now the first large human study
shows that green tea may be more than just
an aromatic brew loved by millions of
Asians who claim it purifies the body.

A report published in the June issue of
the Journal ofthe National Cancer Institute
concluded that green tea is associated with
a reduced rate of esophageal cancer in resi-
dents of Shanghai. Studying 1552 healthy
people and 902 others who had esophageal
cancer, NCI researchers found the risk of
contracting this cancer was reduced by
57% for men and 60% for women who
didn't smoke or drink alcohol but who
consumed lots of green tea.

The researchers undertook the study
because of compelling animal experiments
that demonstrated green tea reduces the
incidence of cancer and even the growth
rate of tumors. Tea is among the most
widely consumed beverages in the world,
and a finding that 20% of that tea, an
unfermented green, naturally protects

against cancer would be good public health
news.

The report comes on the heels of a
smattering of studies worldwide that sug-
gest green tea has a myriad of benefits. In
Japan, scientists have found that green tea
lowers rates of cancers of the lung, skin,
and stomach, and even reduces cholesterol.

But no one is yet ready to say that
green tea protects humans against any dis-
ease, including cancer. The NCI's lead tea
investigator, epidemiologist Joseph
McLaughlin, cautions that no conclusions
can yet be made. "This is the first study
that shows an association, but as to
whether green tea does definitively protect
against esophageal cancer, I can't say."

The problem is that although at least
100 studies have been published in the last
two years, mostly in Asia, there are too few
substantive case-control studies, says
McLaughlin. The NCI survey is the largest
to date, "but further investigations are defi-
nitely needed," he said.

Chung Yang, a biochemist and profes-
sor at Rutgers University, said that recent
reports of the effect of tea on human
health have been "mixed; innately contro-
versial." Yang said that one-fourth of the
studies argue for a protective effect, one-
fourth find tea increases health risks, and
one-half of the studies found no correla-
tion between consumption and disease.
And although the Shanghai study "is inter-
esting and encouraging," Yang said that it
did not present any clear conclusions.

On the other hand, animal data testing
the effect of both black and green tea on
cancer has shown a consistent benefit, said
Yang, who has had a role in many of those

t

Reading tea leaves. Scientists studying green tea believe it may help ensure a healthier future.

Reading tea leaves. Scientists studying green tea believe it may help ensure a healthier future.

818 Environmental Health Perspectives