Social Inequities at the U.S.-Mexico Border: Pollution, Poverty, and Health

美墨边境的社会不平等：污染、贫困和健康

• 批准号: 0234153
• 负责人: Robert Kemper
• 金额: $ 1.1万
• 依托单位: Southern Methodist University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-02-01 至 2005-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0234153&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Social; Inequities; U.S.; Mexico; Border

The U.S.-Mexico border provides a living laboratory in which to study the potentially detrimental effects of industrial pollution. This dissertation research in cultural anthropology will study the landscape of El Paso, Texas, as an arena in which the human and economic costs of increased ambient pollution and the unequal burdens of environmental risk can be evaluated. The project investigates the conditions under which the Hispanic-majority population in this expanding urban region along the U.S.-Mexico border perceives and responds to ambient pollution and the resultant respiratory disease in the context of their marginalized economic status. A comparative study between two ethnically and economically similar communities (but which experience different levels of environmental exposure) may reveal a difference in the incidence of respiratory disease as well as clarify some of the treatment seeking behaviors demonstrated under specific urban, industrial, and economic conditions. This research also explores the cultural significance of the relationship between the environment and health morbidity in children living in communities within, and more distant from, a contaminated atmosphere.This ethnographic research will contribute at several levels to the understanding of the relationships between pollution, poverty, and health. The empirical results from this two-community case study will be valuable to environmental scientists, health-care planners, and policy makers concerned with similar settings throughout the United States. This project also will provide important data for local-level governmental officials in the El Paso region and the broader border region by informing them of potential environmental risk situations. Finally, the research will offer culturally appropriate information that might help at-risk families in the communities to reduce their environmental risks and their rates of respiratory diseases

美国-墨西哥边境为研究工业污染的潜在有害影响提供了一个活生生的实验室。本论文的文化人类学研究将研究得克萨斯州埃尔帕索的景观，作为一个竞技场，在其中增加的环境污染和环境风险的不平等负担的人力和经济成本可以进行评估。该项目调查了在这个沿着美国--墨西哥边境的土著居民在其边缘化经济地位的背景下，对环境污染及其导致的呼吸道疾病作出了感知和反应。两个种族和经济相似的社区（但经历不同程度的环境暴露）之间的比较研究可能会揭示呼吸道疾病发病率的差异，并澄清在特定的城市，工业和经济条件下表现出的一些寻求治疗的行为。本研究还探讨了环境与儿童健康发病率之间的关系的文化意义，生活在社区内，更远离，污染的atmos.This人种学研究将有助于在几个层面上的污染，贫困和健康之间的关系的理解。从这两个社区的案例研究的实证结果将是有价值的环境科学家，卫生保健规划者和政策制定者关心类似的设置在美国各地。该项目还将向埃尔帕索地区和更广泛的边境地区的地方政府官员提供重要数据，向他们通报潜在的环境风险情况。最后，研究将提供文化上适当的信息，帮助社区中的高危家庭减少环境风险和呼吸道疾病的发病率