Dataset Information

Extreme Weather, Chemical Facilities, and Vulnerable Communities in the U.S. Gulf Coast: A Disastrous Combination.

ABSTRACT: Many chemical facilities are located in low-lying coastal areas and vulnerable to damage from hurricanes, flooding, and erosion, which are increasing with climate change. Extreme weather can trigger industrial disasters, including explosions, fires, and major chemical releases, as well as chronic chemical leakage into air, water, and soil. We identified 872 highly hazardous chemical facilities within 50 miles of the hurricane-prone U.S. Gulf Coast. Approximately 4,374,000 people, 1,717 schools, and 98 medical facilities were within 1.5 miles of these facilities. Public health risks from colocated extreme weather, chemical facilities, and vulnerable populations are potentially disastrous and growing under climate change.

SUBMITTER: Anenberg SC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7038901 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Extreme Weather, Chemical Facilities, and Vulnerable Communities in the U.S. Gulf Coast: A Disastrous Combination.

Anenberg Susan C SC Kalman Casey C

GeoHealth 20190529 5

Many chemical facilities are located in low-lying coastal areas and vulnerable to damage from hurricanes, flooding, and erosion, which are increasing with climate change. Extreme weather can trigger industrial disasters, including explosions, fires, and major chemical releases, as well as chronic chemical leakage into air, water, and soil. We identified 872 highly hazardous chemical facilities within 50 miles of the hurricane-prone U.S. Gulf Coast. Approximately 4,374,000 people, 1,717 schools, ...[more]

PMID: 32159036

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Styrene is an established neurotoxicant at occupational levels, but effects at levels relevant to the general population have not been studied. We examined the neurologic effects of environmental styrene exposure among U.S. Gulf coast residents. METHODS:We used National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) 2011 estimates of ambient styrene concentrations to assign exposure levels for 21,962 non-diabetic Gulf state residents, and additionally measured blood styrene concentration in a subset of participants (n?=?874). Neurologic symptoms, as well as detailed covariate information, were ascertained via telephone interview. We used log-binomial regression to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for cross-sectional associations between both ambient and blood styrene levels and self-reported neurologic symptoms. We estimated associations independently for ten unique symptoms, as well as for the presence of any neurologic, central nervous system (CNS), or peripheral nervous system (PNS) symptoms. We also examined heterogeneity of associations with estimated ambient styrene levels by race and sex. RESULTS:One-third of participants reported at least one neurologic symptom. The highest quartile of estimated ambient styrene was associated with one or more neurologic (PR, 1.12; 95% CI: 1.07,1.18), CNS (PR, 1.17; 95% CI: 1.11,1.25), and PNS (PR, 1.16; 95% CI: 1.09,1.25) symptom. Results were less consistent for biomarker analyses, but blood styrene level was suggestively associated with nausea (PR, 1.78; 95% CI: 1.04, 3.03). In stratified analyses, we observed the strongest effects among non-White participants. CONCLUSIONS:Increasing estimated ambient styrene concentration was consistently associated with increased prevalence of neurologic symptoms. Associations between blood styrene levels and some neurologic symptoms were suggestive. Environmental styrene exposure levels may be sufficient to elicit symptomatic neurotoxic effects.

Project description:Medicare utilization and costs for residents of the U.S. Gulf Coast, who are highly vulnerable to natural disasters, may be impacted by their disaster exposure.To estimate differences in healthcare utilization by disaster exposure, we calculated Medicare expenditures among residents of U.S. Gulf States and compared them with expenditures among residents of other regions of the U.S.Panel models were used to calculate changes in overall Medicare expenditures, inpatient expenditures, and home health expenditures for 32,819 Medicare beneficiaries. Individual demographic characteristics were included as predictors of change in expenditures.Medicare beneficiaries with National Health Interview Survey participation were identified and Part A claims were linked. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) data was used to determine counties that experienced no, some, high, and extreme hazard exposure. FEMA data was merged with Medicare claims data to create a panel dataset from 2001 to 2007.Medicare Part A claims for the years 2001 to 2007 were merged with FEMA data related to disasters in each U.S. County. Overall Medicare costs, as well as costs for inpatient and home health care for residents of states located along the U.S. Gulf Coast (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida) were compared to costs for residents of the rest of the U.S.Expenditures among residents of U.S. Gulf States decreased with increased hazard exposure. Decreases in inpatient expenditures persisted in the years following a disaster.The use of beneficiary-level data highlights the potential for natural hazards to impact health care costs. This study demonstrates the possibility that exposure to more severe disasters may limit access to health care and therefore reduce expenditures. Additional research is needed to determine if there is a substitution of services (e.g., inpatient rehabilitation for home health) in disaster-affected areas during the post-disaster period.

Project description:The Baltic Sea is vulnerable to environmental changes. With the increasing shipping activities, the risk of oil spills remains high. Archaea are widely distributed in many environments. However, the distribution and the response of archaeal communities to oil contamination have rarely been investigated in brackish habitats. Hence, we conducted a survey to investigate the distribution, diversity, composition, and species interactions of indigenous archaeal communities at oil-contaminated sites along the coast of the Gulf of Finland (GoF) using high-throughput sequencing. Surface water and littoral sediment samples were collected at presumably oil-contaminated (oil distribution facilities) and clean sites along the coastline of the GoF in the winter 2015 and the summer 2016. Another three samples of open sea surface water were taken as offshore references. Of Archaea, Euryarchaeota dominated in the surface water and the littoral sediment of the coast of the GoF, followed by Crenarchaeota (including Thaumarchaeota, Thermoprotei, and Korarchaeota based on the Greengenes database used). The unclassified sequences accounted for 5.62% of the total archaeal sequences. Our study revealed a strong dependence of the archaeal community composition on environmental variables (e.g., salinity, pH, oil concentration, TOM, electrical conductivity, and total DNA concentration) in both littoral sediment and coastal water in the GoF. The composition of archaeal communities was season and ecosystem dependent. Archaea was highly diverse in the three ecosystems (littoral sediment, coastal water, and open sea water). Littoral sediment harbored the highest diversity of archaea. Oil was often detected in the littoral sediment but rarely detected in water at those presumably contaminated sites. Although the composition of archaeal community in the littoral sediment was sensitive to low-input oil contamination, the unchanged putative functional profiles and increased interconnectivity of the archaeal core species network plausibly revealed resilience and the potential for oil degradation. Halobacteriaceae and putative cytochrome P450 pathways were significantly enriched in the oil-contaminated littoral sediment. The archaeal taxa formed highly interconnected and interactive networks, in which Halobacteriaceae, Thermococcus, and methanogens were the main components, implying a potential relevant trophic connection between hydrocarbon degradation, methanogenesis, sulfate reduction, and/or fermentative growth.

Dataset Information

Extreme Weather, Chemical Facilities, and Vulnerable Communities in the U.S. Gulf Coast: A Disastrous Combination.

Publications

Extreme Weather, Chemical Facilities, and Vulnerable Communities in the U.S. Gulf Coast: A Disastrous Combination.

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