Informing Effective Place-Based Interventions: Assessing Drivers of Environmental Burden in Wisconsin

Environmental Health Briefs
, By Clean Wisconsin

By Kayla Rinderknecht, MPH & Paul Mathewson, Ph.D.

Summary

Different Wisconsin communities face different environmental quality challenges and exposures that drive inequitable pollution exposures. In order to effectively address environmental drivers of health disparities, it is important to understand community-specific challenges and opportunities. To assess the different exposures that communities face, this brief explores the individual drivers of environmental burden disparities in various Wisconsin urban areas.

This analysis extends our previous brief looking at overall environmental pollution exposure burden, which provided a starting point for understanding environmental determinants of health in Wisconsin. Here we investigate exposures to specific pollution exposures within environmental health indices to better understand what is driving overall environmental burden and related health disparities for communities in Wisconsin. It also explores the importance of community-based interventions and their role in addressing different drivers of environmental burden and related health disparities.

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Key takeaways:

  • Consistent with our prior statewide analysis, non-white and lower income populations experience a higher overall environmental exposure burden within most urban areas analyzed.
  • Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Appleton/Oshkosh urban areas had the largest overall environmental burden racial/ethnic disparities.
  • The most important drivers, for both racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities, varied between urban areas but there were some consistently important drivers.
  • Lead paint exposure, traffic-related air pollution, proximity to hazardous air pollution sources, and impermeable surface cover were all among the most important drivers of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities statewide and in 6 of the 7 urban areas analyzed.
  • Targeted, place-based interventions are tailored to specific community needs. Statewide initiatives, although necessary, may not accurately target the different disparities that urban areas are experiencing.