Brief Research Summaries

Adolescent Asthma Symptoms and Pulp and Paper Mills:

Researchers looked at more than 50,000 students at more than 250 schools in North Carolina to determine if wheezing was greater among students at schools close to pulp and paper factors or schools where odors from these factories could be smelled. Read about this issue on-screen, or download the PDF.

Adolescent Asthma Symptoms and Industrial Hog Facilities:

Researchers looked at more than 50,000 students at more than 250 schools in North Carolina to determine if wheezing was greater among students at schools where odors could be smelled from nearby confined swine feeding operations (“hog farms”). Read about this issue on-screen, or download the PDF.

Race, Poverty, and Hog Facilities in North Carolina:

Researchers looked at more than 200 schools in North Carolina to determine if confined swine feeding operations (“hog farms”) and odors from these facilities disproportionately affected low income students or students at mostly-non-white schools. Read about this issue on-screen, or download the PDF.

Race, Wealth, and Solid Waste Facilities in North Carolina:

Researchers examined permits from more than 400 solid waste facilities to determine if solid waste facilities were more often sited in low income communities or communities comprised primarily of people of color. Read about this issue on-screen, download the PDF, or view a presentation about research addressing this question.

This research was presented to the North Carolina Joint Select Committee on Environmental Justice on October 23, 2006. Read a summary of this testimony.