The Organization of Environmental Injustice

该提案将解决以下问题：哪些类型的化工厂对健康构成最大威胁，以及在哪些类型的社区？ 长期以来，环境正义学者一直对工业造成的实际危险以及使社区易受其影响的因素感兴趣。 他们广泛研究了种族、阶级和公民参与等社区特征对工业设施及其排放的影响。 然而，研究人员很少研究工业设施本身及其特性对排放的影响。 他们也没有研究设施和社区特征的组合如何影响污染暴露。 在很大程度上，这是因为研究人员缺乏关于设施排放造成的健康风险的系统数据，学者可用的方法不适合测试复杂的高阶相互作用。 为了纠正这种情况，我们使用美国环保署新发布的风险筛选环境指标（RSEI），以调查设施和社区特征对化工厂的风险相关排放的影响。 我们采用传统的回归技术来分析设施和社区因素的独立影响，和新的定性比较分析（QCA）的方法来确定其联合效应。 与结构嵌入性研究相一致，我们假设不仅设施和社区因素对风险相关排放产生显著的净效应，而且它们还相互作用产生多个因果路径。 通过具体说明这种相互作用，本项目将有助于弥合组织行为和环境正义文献之间的差距。 这项研究还将产生一个工业污染者的结构类型，决策者可以用来集中和优先考虑他们的监管工作。 特别是，这项研究将有利于地方应急规划委员会（LEPC）和国家应急反应委员会（SERC），负责根据社区知情权法传播有关当地污染者的信息。 最后，研究结果应有助于化学品制造商协会提高其成员公司的自我监管和环境绩效。

THE ORGANIZATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICEThis proposal will address the following question: Which types of chemical plants pose the greatest health threat and in which types of communities? Environmental justice scholars have long been interested in the physical dangers posed by industry and the factors that make communities vulnerable to them. They have extensively researched the effects of community characteristics like race, class, and civic engagement on exposure to industrial facilities and their emissions. However, researchers have rarely studied industrial facilities themselves and the effects of their characteristics on emissions. Nor have they examined how combinations of facility and community characteristics influence pollution exposure. In large part, this is because researchers have lacked systematic data on the health risks posed by facilities' emissions and the methods available to scholars have not been suited for testing complex, higher-order interactions. To remedy this situation, we use the EPA's newly released Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) to investigate the effects of facility and community characteristics on chemical plants' risk-related emissions. We employ conventional regression techniques to analyze the independent effects of facility and community factors, and novel qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) methods to determine their conjoint effects. Consistent with research on structural embeddedness, we hypothesize that not only do facility and community factors exert significant net effects on risk-related emissions, but they also interact to produce multiple causal pathways. By specifying such interactions, this project will help to bridge the gap between the literatures on organizational behavior and environmental justice. This study will also generate a structural typology of industrial polluters that policymakers can use to focus and prioritize their regulatory efforts. In particular, this research will benefit Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs) and State Emergency Response Commissions (SERCs) that are responsible for disseminating information about local polluters under the Community Right-to-Know Act. Finally, results should help the Chemical Manufacturers Association improve the self-regulation and environmental performance of its member companies.