Since W. E. B. Du Bois documented the physical and social environments of Philadelphia's predominantly African American Seventh Ward over a century ago, there has been continued interest in understanding the distribution of social and physical environments by racial make-up of communities. Characterization of these environments allows for documentation of inequities, identifies communities which encounter heightened risk, and can inform action to promote health equity. In this paper, we apply and extend Du Bois's approach to examine the contemporary distribution of physical environmental exposures, health risks, and social vulnerabilities in the Detroit metropolitan area, one of the most racially-segregated areas in the United States. We begin by mapping the proximity of sensitive populations to hazardous land uses, their exposure to air pollutants and associated health risks, and social vulnerabilities, as well as cumulative risk (combined proximity, exposure, and vulnerability), across Census tracts. Next, we assess, quantitatively, the extent to which communities of color experience excess burdens of environmental exposures and associated health risks, economic and age-related vulnerabilities, and cumulative risk. The results, depicted in maps presented in the paper, suggest that Census tracts with greater proportions of people of color disproportionately encounter physical environmental exposures, socioeconomic vulnerabilities, and combined risk. Quantitative tests of inequality confirm these distributions, with statistically greater exposures, vulnerabilities, and cumulative risk in Census tracts with larger proportions of people of color. Together, these findings identify communities that experience disproportionate cumulative risk in the Detroit metropolitan area and quantify the inequitable distribution of risk by Census tract relative to the proportion of people of color. They identify clear opportunities for prioritizing communities for legislative, regulatory, policy, and local actions to promote environmental justice and health equity.

中文翻译：

---

种族与社会和身体环境风险的分布：底特律大都市区的案例。

自从一个多世纪前 WEB Du Bois 记录了费城以非裔美国人为主的第七选区的物质和社会环境以来，人们一直对了解社区种族构成的社会和物质环境分布感兴趣。这些环境的特征可以记录不平等，识别面临高风险的社区，并可以为促进健康公平的行动提供信息。在本文中，我们应用并扩展了杜波依斯的方法来研究底特律大都市区（美国种族隔离最严重的地区之一）的物理环境暴露、健康风险和社会脆弱性的当代分布。我们首先绘制整个人口普查区域中敏感人群与危险土地用途的接近程度、他们对空气污染物的暴露程度和相关的健康风险、社会脆弱性以及累积风险（接近程度、暴露程度和脆弱性的组合）。接下来，我们定量评估有色人种社区承受环境暴露和相关健康风险、经济和年龄相关脆弱性以及累积风险的过度负担的程度。论文中地图中描绘的结果表明，人口普查地区有色人种比例较高的地区不成比例地遭遇自然环境暴露、社会经济脆弱性和综合风险。对不平等的定量测试证实了这些分布，统计上有色人种比例较大的人口普查区的暴露度、脆弱性和累积风险更大。总之，这些发现确定了底特律大都市区经历不成比例的累积风险的社区，并量化了人口普查区相对于有色人种比例的不公平风险分布。他们确定了明确的机会，可以优先考虑社区的立法、监管、政策和地方行动，以促进环境正义和健康公平。