tailieunhanh - Maquiladoras, Air Pollution, and Human Health in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso

The regression results do not support the hypothesis that emissions from the two maquiladoras disproportionately affect the poor. The coefficients for CONCENTRATION is only significantly different from zero in one of the four models—that for uncontrolled emissions from the iron foundry. However, the sign is negative. This implies that higher PM10 concentrations are typically found in wealthier AGEBs, not in poorer ones. Thus, overall, we find no evidence that emissions from the two maquiladoras in our sample disproportionately affect the poor. By contrast, for brick kilns, the coefficient on CONCETRATION is significant and positive,. | Maquiladoras Air Pollution and Human Health in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso Allen Blackman Michael Batz and David Evans April 2003 updated July 2004 Discussion Paper 03-18 R ESO u ROES FOR THE FUTURE Resources for the Future 1616 P Street NW Washington . 20036 Telephone 202-328-5000 Fax 202-939-3460 Internet http 2003 Resources for the Future. All rights reserved. No portion of this paper may be reproduced without permission of the authors. Discussion papers are research materials circulated by their authors for purposes of information and discussion. They have not necessarily undergone formal peer review or editorial treatment. Maquiladoras Air Pollution and Human Health In Ciudad Juarez and El Paso Allen Blackman Michael Batz and David Evans Abstract Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua is home to the border s largest maquiladora labor force and also its worst air pollution. We marshal two types of evidence to examine the link between maquiladoras and air pollution in Ciudad Juárez and in its sister city El Paso Texas. First we use a publicly available sector-level emissions inventory for Ciudad Juárez to determine the importance of all industrial facilities including maquiladoras as a source of air pollution. Second we use original plantlevel data from two sample maquiladoras to better understand the impacts of maquiladora air pollution on human health. We use a series of computational models to estimate health damages attributable to air pollution from these plants we compare these damages to estimates of damages from non-maquiladora industrial polluters and we use regression analysis to determine whether the poor suffer disproportionately from maquiladora air pollution. We find that air pollution from maquiladoras has serious consequences for human health including respiratory disease and premature mortality. However maquiladoras are clearly not the leading cause of air pollution in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. Moreover most maquiladoras are probably