IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i24p16325-d995780.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban Water Crisis Causes Significant Public Health Diseases in Jackson, Mississippi USA: An Initial Study of Geographic and Racial Health Inequities

Author

Listed:
  • Qingmin Meng

    (Department of Geosciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA)

Abstract

Clean and safe water is at the core of sustainable development, and access to it is critical to public health. Urban water crisis is even more challenging because of population aggregations and its consequences for the clustered social-economic activities in an urban area. It can also be a right issue even in developed countries due to the available investment in water infrastructure and its maintenance that may not be equally available to all communities, in addition to the increasing threats by flooding or drought disasters. Using the decadal urban water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi USA as a case study, this primary research focuses on public health inequities between the white and black, and between the city of Jackson and its eight peripheral cities. The hypothesis is that the urban water crisis in Jackson has resulted in extreme public health injustice geographically against African Americans. Then, this research uses the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) PLACES census tract health data, which provide two health status measurements and 12 health outcomes attributes, to conduct a statistical comparison between Jackson and its eight peripheral cities. The results indicated that the urban water crisis in Jackson already results in immense public health inequities. The small p -values (i.e., <<0.05) from T tests showed the significantly worse mental and physical health status and health outcomes in Jackson, Mississippi than other seven cities, which indicated the city of Jackson with about 83% African Americans may already have started a critical degradation in public health, and the current water crisis continuously threatens the black majority communities in Jackson in addition to the city of Canton, another majority-black city. It indicates that the federal and state governments must face and address this crucial crisis of urban water issues caused public health disparities in addition to the social injustice and environmental injustice of clean and safe water availability to the black communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Qingmin Meng, 2022. "Urban Water Crisis Causes Significant Public Health Diseases in Jackson, Mississippi USA: An Initial Study of Geographic and Racial Health Inequities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:24:p:16325-:d:995780
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16325/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16325/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanna-Attisha, M. & LaChance, J. & Sadler, R.C. & Schnepp, A.C., 2016. "Elevated blood lead levels in children associated with the flint drinking water crisis: A spatial analysis of risk and public health response," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(2), pages 283-290.
    2. Daniel S. Grossman & David J.G. Slusky, 2019. "The Impact of the Flint Water Crisis on Fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(6), pages 2005-2031, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Tuviere Onookome-Okome & Angel Hsu & Dean G. Kilpatrick & Angela Moreland & Aaron Reuben, 2023. "Association of Public Works Disasters with Substance Use Difficulties: Evidence from Flint, Michigan, Five Years after the Water Crisis Onset," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(23), pages 1-12, November.
    2. Rui Wang & Xi Chen & Xun Li, 2022. "Something in the pipe: the Flint water crisis and health at birth," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1723-1749, October.
    3. Jessica Sauve‐Syed, 2024. "Lead exposure and student outcomes: A study of Flint schools," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 432-448, March.
    4. Brenda D. Koester & Stephanie Sloane & Elinor M. Fujimoto & Barbara H. Fiese & Leona Yi-Fan Su, 2021. "What Do Childcare Providers Know about Environmental Influences on Children’s Health? Implications for Environmental Health Literacy Efforts," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-11, May.
    5. Nicole Gorton & Maxim L. Pinkovskiy, 2021. "Credit Access and Mobility during the Flint Water Crisis," Staff Reports 960, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    6. Shooshan Danagoulian & Derek Jenkins, 2021. "Rolling back the gains: Maternal stress undermines pregnancy health after Flint's water switch," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(3), pages 564-584, March.
    7. Alex Hollingsworth & Mike Huang & Ivan J. Rudik & Nicholas J. Sanders, 2020. "A Thousand Cuts: Cumulative Lead Exposure Reduces Academic Achievement," NBER Working Papers 28250, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Rama Natarajan & Dana Aljaber & Dawn Au & Christine Thai & Angelica Sanchez & Alan Nunez & Cristal Resto & Tanya Chavez & Marta M. Jankowska & Tarik Benmarhnia & Jiue-An Yang & Veronica Jones & Jernej, 2020. "Environmental Exposures during Puberty: Window of Breast Cancer Risk and Epigenetic Damage," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-17, January.
    9. Jerch, Rhiannon L. & Phaneuf, Daniel J., 2024. "Cities and water quality," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    10. Hoa Vu, 2024. "I wish I were born in another time: Unintended consequences of immigration enforcement on birth outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(2), pages 345-362, February.
    11. Kunwar, Samrat B. & Khatiwada, Niraj & Rahman, Mohammad Mashiur & Liu, Menqui & Thapa, Swati & Bohara, Alok K. & Wang, Jingjing, 2023. "Reimagining Teaching Water Issues through Experiential Learning," Applied Economics Teaching Resources (AETR), Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 5(3), September.
    12. Jason A. Hubbart & Kaylyn S. Gootman, 2021. "A Call to Broaden Investment in Drinking Water Testing and Community Outreach Programs," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-10, December.
    13. Shan Parker & Vicki Johnson-Lawrence, 2022. "Addressing Trauma-Informed Principles in Public Health through Training and Practice," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-14, July.
    14. Deniz Yeter & Ellen C. Banks & Michael Aschner, 2020. "Disparity in Risk Factor Severity for Early Childhood Blood Lead among Predominantly African-American Black Children: The 1999 to 2010 US NHANES," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-26, February.
    15. Kai Chen & Xiaoping Lin & Han Wang & Yujie Qiang & Jie Kong & Rui Huang & Haining Wang & Hui Liu, 2022. "Visualizing the Knowledge Base and Research Hotspot of Public Health Emergency Management: A Science Mapping Analysis-Based Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-23, June.
    16. Daniel S. Grossman & David J.G. Slusky, 2019. "The Impact of the Flint Water Crisis on Fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(6), pages 2005-2031, December.
    17. Tarik Benmarhnia & Ianis Delpla & Lara Schwarz & Manuel J. Rodriguez & Patrick Levallois, 2018. "Heterogeneity in the Relationship between Disinfection By-Products in Drinking Water and Cancer: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-13, May.
    18. Hill, Elaine L. & Ma, Lala, 2022. "Drinking water, fracking, and infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    19. John T. Doyle & Larry Kindness & James Realbird & Margaret J. Eggers & Anne K. Camper, 2018. "Challenges and Opportunities for Tribal Waters: Addressing Disparities in Safe Public Drinking Water on the Crow Reservation in Montana, USA," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-13, March.
    20. Richard Casey Sadler & Amanda Y. Kong & Zachary Buchalski & Erika Renee Chanderraj & Laura A. Carravallah, 2021. "Linking the Flint Food Store Survey: Is Objective or Perceived Access to Healthy Foods Associated with Glycemic Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-13, September.

    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:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:24:p:16325-:d:995780. 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.