Abstract
Data from the Massachusetts' Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the U.S. Census indicate that the toxic waste crisis is worsening. In addition to the contamination of deindustrialized urban areas comes increasing contamination in many newly industrialized suburbs. This results in both race and class biases with disproportionate amounts of toxic waste in urban communities of color and working-class (predominantly white) suburbs. Despite these “region-specific” associations, new evidence indicates that the single best indicator of toxic hazards, before controlling for region, is the percentage of community taxes from commercial and industrial sources. This raises important questions regarding sources of race and class biases and how to assess environmental injustices.
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Krieg, E.J. The Two Faces of Toxic Waste: Trends in the Spread of Environmental Hazards. Sociological Forum 13, 3–20 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022147712682
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022147712682