Some of the most hazardous air pollution areas of the United States are found in Texas. This study compares the socioeconomic composition of 40 neighborhoods most severely affected by air pollution to 40 randomly selected metropolitan neighborhoods in the state. While studies in other states indicate that it is poor, minority people who live in polluted areas, this analysis indicates that in Texas middle-class, working persons live there to be near their jobs. The study draws on past research in environmental hazards and argues that air pollution might most clearly be understood as part of a new class of hazards: insidious technological hazards.
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