CHEMICAL HAZARDS IN URBAN AMERICA

Abstract

This paper examines the spatial distribution of airborne releases of acutely toxic materials in 3 17 metropolitan areas in the United States. There were 1,362 incidents in urban areas between 1980 and 1989.One-third of the urban areas had no recorded releases during the decade, while 1 I% had at least one per year. Metropolitan areas were classified into high, medium, and low hazard areas based on incident frequency. A discriminant analysis was used to help differentiate these places using measures of risk and mitigation. The analysis correctly classified 81% of the metropolitan areas and found that five variables were the most important indicators of hazard: number of chemical services; number of railroad track miles; number of nondurable agricultural suppliers; population density; and number of railroad yards. Four of these variables stress the importance of risk indicators (industrial infrastructure) within a city that contribute to the potential for disaster. While we can begin to understand the hazards of place, many issues, such as the human consequences of these hazards, the sociospatial inequities in the distribution of risks and mitigation responses, and the scale and complexity of industrial facilities in contributing to the chemical hazardscape, require further exploration.