Summary

Title: Exploring the California Environmental Screen 4.0

Subtitle: Examining Lead Exposure Risk and Poverty

Data source: ces4.0_data.csv

Background: The CalEnviroScreen is a tool developed by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the OEHHA (Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment). The tool summarizes information about demographics, pollution, and health outcomes for the state of California. The tool helps visualize communities that are disproportionately at risk for environmental harm. Today, we will be using the available data to investigate the relationship between poverty rate and lead exposure.

Lead poisoning can cause serious harm, especially for young children, and can affect the brain, kidneys, and nervous system. Even a small exposure to lead can result in serious developmental delays for young children. Lead can be found in paint in old homes as well as in old plumbing or in the soil. It is important to know the risk of lead exposure to help protect children. This version of CalEnviroScreen was released in October 2021; data on lead risk was collected from 2013 to 2017 (Zeise & Blumenfeld, CES4.0 2021).

Results: We can see that poverty rates and risk of lead exposure have a slightly positive association in the basic linear regression model. In addition, several counties with high poverty rates and high risk of lead exposure seem to also have a higher proportion of children under 10 years of age in the population (see Tulare county), making them an extremely vulnerable population. This visualization emphasizes the need for lead screening and remediation in these highly vulnerable communities.

Figure 1: Poverty rates by county In the Cal Enviro Screen 4.0 Database, the poverty rate refers to the percent of the population living below two times the federal poverty level. This map visualizes the burden of poverty by California county. Click to see the total population and poverty rate for each county.

Figure 2: Lead exposure risk and poverty rates This bubble chart shows lead exposure risk by poverty rate. Each bubble represents a specific county where the size of the bubble indicates the relative total population of each county. The color gradient represents the percent of children under the age of 10 in each county ranging from 7.65% (purple) to 17.12% (yellow). Hover over each bubble for more information. A basic linear regression model is shown in red; the slope is 0.31, showing a slight positive association between poverty and lead exposure risk, with an R-squared of 0.097 and a p-value of 0.017.