IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i9p5718-d1139072.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inequalities in Environmental Cancer Risk and Carcinogen Exposures: A Scoping Review

Author

Listed:
  • Kristian Larsen

    (Health Canada, Office of Environmental Health, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Environmental and Radiation Health Science Directorate, Ottawa, ON K1A 0K9, Canada
    CAREX Canada, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
    Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada
    Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada)

  • Ela Rydz

    (CAREX Canada, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
    Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 4N1, Canada)

  • Cheryl E. Peters

    (CAREX Canada, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
    Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 4N1, Canada
    Prevention, Screening and Hereditary Cancer, BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada
    Population and Public Health, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada)

Abstract

Background : Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada and a major cause of death worldwide. Environmental exposure to carcinogens and environments that may relate to health behaviors are important to examine as they can be modified to lower cancer risks. Built environments include aspects such as transit infrastructure, greenspace, food and tobacco environments, or land use, which may impact how people move, exercise, eat, and live. While environments may play a role in overall cancer risk, exposure to carcinogens or healthier environments is not equitably spread across space. Exposures to carcinogens commonly concentrate among socially and/or economically disadvantaged populations. While many studies have examined inequalities in exposure or cancer risk, this has commonly been for one exposure. Methods : This scoping review collected and synthesized research that examines inequities in carcinogenic environments and exposures. Results : This scoping review found that neighborhoods with higher proportions of low-income residents, racialized people, or same-sex couples had higher exposures to carcinogens and environments that may influence cancer risk. There are currently four main themes in research studying inequitable exposures: air pollution and hazardous substances, tobacco access, food access, and other aspects of the built environment, with most research still focusing on air pollution. Conclusions : More work is needed to understand how exposures to these four areas intersect with other factors to reduce inequities in exposures to support longer-term goals toward cancer prevention.

Suggested Citation

  • Kristian Larsen & Ela Rydz & Cheryl E. Peters, 2023. "Inequalities in Environmental Cancer Risk and Carcinogen Exposures: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(9), pages 1-26, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:9:p:5718-:d:1139072
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/9/5718/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/9/5718/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanneke Kruize & Mariël Droomers & Irene Van Kamp & Annemarie Ruijsbroek, 2014. "What Causes Environmental Inequalities and Related Health Effects? An Analysis of Evolving Concepts," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-21, May.
    2. Marion Porcherie & Nyan Linn & Anne Roué Le Gall & Marie-Florence Thomas & Emmanuelle Faure & Stéphane Rican & Jean Simos & Nicola Cantoreggi & Zoé Vaillant & Linda Cambon & Jean-Philippe Regnaux, 2021. "Relationship between Urban Green Spaces and Cancer: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-19, February.
    3. Andrea Hricko & Glovioell Rowland & Sandrah Eckel & Angelo Logan & Maryam Taher & John Wilson, 2014. "Global Trade, Local Impacts: Lessons from California on Health Impacts and Environmental Justice Concerns for Residents Living near Freight Rail Yards," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-28, February.
    4. Chunrong Jia & Wesley James & Satish Kedia, 2014. "Relationship of Racial Composition and Cancer Risks from Air Toxics Exposure in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-12, July.
    5. Catharine Ward Thompson & Peter Aspinall & Jenny Roe & Lynette Robertson & David Miller, 2016. "Mitigating Stress and Supporting Health in Deprived Urban Communities: The Importance of Green Space and the Social Environment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-24, April.
    6. Krieger, N., 2002. "Is breast cancer a disease of affluence, poverty, or both? The case of African American women," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(4), pages 611-613.
    7. Jamie Pearce & Simon Kingham & Peyman Zawar-Reza, 2006. "Every Breath You Take? Environmental Justice and Air Pollution in Christchurch, New Zealand," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(5), pages 919-938, May.
    8. Mikati, I. & Benson, A.F. & Luben, T.J. & Sacks, J.D. & Richmond-Bryant, J., 2018. "Disparities in distribution of particulate matter emission sources by race and poverty status," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 108(4), pages 480-485.
    9. Michel G. Loustaunau & Jayajit Chakraborty, 2019. "Vehicular Air Pollution in Houston, Texas: An Intra-Categorical Analysis of Environmental Injustice," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-16, August.
    10. Rosenbaum, A. & Hartley, S. & Holder, C., 2011. "Analysis of diesel particulate matter health risk disparities in selected US harbor areas," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(S1), pages 217-223.
    11. Reitzel, L.R. & Cromley, E.K. & Li, Y. & Cao, Y. & Mater, R.D. & Mazas, C.A. & Cofta-Woerpel, L. & Cinciripini, P.M. & Wetter, D.W., 2011. "The effect of tobacco outlet density and proximity on smoking cessation," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(2), pages 315-320.
    12. Jayajit Chakraborty & Timothy W. Collins & Sara E. Grineski & Marilyn C. Montgomery & Maricarmen Hernandez, 2014. "Comparing Disproportionate Exposure to Acute and Chronic Pollution Risks: A Case Study in Houston, Texas," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(11), pages 2005-2020, November.
    13. Rosenbaum, A. & Hartley, S. & Holder, C., 2011. "Analysis of diesel particulate matter health risk disparities in selected US harbor areas," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(SUPPL. 1), pages 216-223.
    14. Rachel Morello-Frosch & Manuel Pastor JR & James Sadd, 2002. "Integrating Environmental Justice and the Precautionary Principle in Research and Policy Making: The Case of Ambient Air Toxics Exposures and Health Risks among Schoolchildren in Los Angeles," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 584(1), pages 47-68, November.
    15. Timothy W. Collins & Sara E. Grineski & Danielle X. Morales, 2017. "Sexual Orientation, Gender, and Environmental Injustice: Unequal Carcinogenic Air Pollution Risks in Greater Houston," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(1), pages 72-92, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leanne M. Brown & Ryan A. Hagenson & Tilen Koklič & Iztok Urbančič & Lu Qiao & Janez Strancar & Jason M. Sheltzer, 2024. "An elevated rate of whole-genome duplications in cancers from Black patients," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yoo Min Park & Mei-Po Kwan, 2017. "Multi-Contextual Segregation and Environmental Justice Research: Toward Fine-Scale Spatiotemporal Approaches," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Joshua Allwright & Akhlaqur Rahman & Marcus Coleman & Ambarish Kulkarni, 2022. "Heavy Multi-Articulated Vehicles with Electric and Hybrid Power Trains for Road Freight Activity: An Australian Context," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-19, August.
    3. Hyun Jin Lee & Dong Kun Lee, 2019. "Do Sociodemographic Factors and Urban Green Space Affect Mental Health Outcomes Among the Urban Elderly Population?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-13, March.
    4. William C. Sullivan & Chun-Yen Chang, 2017. "Landscapes and Human Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-2, October.
    5. Dragan Gjorgjev & Mirjana Dimovska & George Morris & John Howie & Mirjana Borota Popovska & Marija Topuzovska Latkovikj, 2019. "How Good Is our Place—Implementation of the Place Standard Tool in North Macedonia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-16, December.
    6. Collins, Timothy W. & Nadybal, Shawna & Grineski, Sara E., 2020. "Sonic injustice: Disparate residential exposures to transport noise from road and aviation sources in the continental United States," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    7. Camille Salesse, 2022. "Inequality in exposure to air pollution in France: bringing pollutant cocktails into the picture," CEE-M Working Papers hal-03882438, CEE-M, Universtiy of Montpellier, CNRS, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro.
    8. Emad Kazemzadeh & José Alberto Fuinhas & Narges Salehnia & Fariba Osmani, 2023. "The effect of economic complexity, fertility rate, and information and communication technology on ecological footprint in the emerging economies: a two-step stirpat model and panel quantile regressio," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 737-763, February.
    9. Kendzor, Darla E. & Reitzel, Lorraine R. & Mazas, Carlos A. & Cofta-Woerpel, Ludmila M. & Cao, Yumei & Ji, Lingyun & Costello, Tracy J. & Vidrine, Jennifer Irvin & Businelle, Michael S. & Li, Yisheng , 2012. "Individual- and area-level unemployment influence smoking cessation among African Americans participating in a randomized clinical trial," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(9), pages 1394-1401.
    10. Monica D. Ramirez-Andreotta & Julia Green Brody & Nathan Lothrop & Miranda Loh & Paloma I. Beamer & Phil Brown, 2016. "Improving Environmental Health Literacy and Justice through Environmental Exposure Results Communication," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-27, July.
    11. Carlos Ojeda Sánchez & Javier García-Pérez & Diana Gómez-Barroso & Alejandro Domínguez-Castillo & Elena Pardo Romaguera & Adela Cañete & Juan Antonio Ortega-García & Rebeca Ramis, 2023. "Exploring Urban Green Spaces’ Effect against Traffic Exposure on Childhood Leukaemia Incidence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-11, January.
    12. Deborah F Shmueli, 2008. "Environmental Justice in the Israeli Context," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(10), pages 2384-2401, October.
    13. Marco Lorenzo Allain & Timothy W. Collins, 2021. "Differential Access to Park Space Based on Country of Origin within Miami’s Hispanic/Latino Population: A Novel Analysis of Park Equity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-18, August.
    14. Lawrence A. Palinkas & Jessenia De Leon & Kexin Yu & Erika Salinas & Cecilia Fernandez & Jill Johnston & Md Mostafijur Rahman & Sam J. Silva & Michael Hurlburt & Rob S. McConnell & Erika Garcia, 2023. "Adaptation Resources and Responses to Wildfire Smoke and Other Forms of Air Pollution in Low-Income Urban Settings: A Mixed-Methods Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-16, April.
    15. Jill Furzer & Boriana Miloucheva, 2020. "The Long Arm of the Clean Air Act: Pollution Abatement and COVID-19 Racial Disparities," Working Papers tecipa-668, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    16. Andre M. Eanes & Todd R. Lookingbill & Jeremy S. Hoffman & Kelly C. Saverino & Stephen S. Fong, 2020. "Assessing Inequitable Urban Heat Islands and Air Pollution Disparities with Low-Cost Sensors in Richmond, Virginia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-18, December.
    17. Elgloria Harrison & Ashley D. Milton & Matthew L. Richardson, 2020. "Knowledge and Perceptions of Environmental Issues by African Americans/Blacks in Washington, DC, USA: Giving Voice to the Voiceless," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-14, November.
    18. Faven Araya & Jeanette A. Stingone & Luz Claudio, 2021. "Inequalities in Exposure to Ambient Air Neurotoxicants and Disparities in Markers of Neurodevelopment in Children by Maternal Nativity Status," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-12, July.
    19. Pereira, Mauro F. & Vale, David S. & Santana, Paula, 2023. "Is walkability equitably distributed across socio-economic groups? – A spatial analysis for Lisbon metropolitan area," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    20. Jean C. Bikomeye & Sima Namin & Chima Anyanwu & Caitlin S. Rublee & Jamie Ferschinger & Ken Leinbach & Patricia Lindquist & August Hoppe & Lawrence Hoffman & Justin Hegarty & Dwayne Sperber & Kirsten , 2021. "Resilience and Equity in a Time of Crises: Investing in Public Urban Greenspace Is Now More Essential Than Ever in the US and Beyond," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-39, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:9:p:5718-:d:1139072. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.