Communities with a low SES experience higher exposure rates to air pollutants and other environmental hazards, increased susceptibility to poor health, which results in health disparities that are driven by environmental factors.

Hypothesis on Environmental Inequality 

Human social structures, such as ethnicity and socioeconomic status, can confound the determination of the origins of high intelligence. Some ethnic groups perform better on IQ tests than others, but these results likely do not have much to do with the quality of each group's intellect, and are instead influenced by environmental factors.

Socioeconomic Status and IQ Test Performance

Socioeconomic Status or SES is a complex construct that combines multiple social and economic factors to measure an individual or group's position socially and economically relative to others.  These factors typically include but are not limited to income level, educational level, and occupation.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Environmental inequality is defined as the unequal distribution of environmental hazards, such as air pollution, and the resulting health disparities experienced across different socioeconomic groups.

Environmental Inequality

Hajat, A., Hsia, C., & O'Neill, M. S. (2015). Socioeconomic Disparities and Air Pollution Exposure: a Global Review. Current environmental health reports, 2(4), 440–450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-015-0069-5


Socioeconomic Disparities and Air Pollution Exposure: A Global Review


Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Air pollution in the context of Environmental Justice is limited to what the EPA and other governmental agencies in other nations regulate.  These pollutant measurements are set by the World Health Organization and individual governments around the world.  

The primary air pollutants that are regulated in outdoor air include: 

•Air particle/Particle Matter 2.5(PM 2.5, <2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter)

•Air Particle/Particle Matter (PM 10, <10 μm in aerodynamic diameter)

•Carbon Monoxide (CO)

•Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)

•Ozone (O3)

•Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)

•Lead  


Air Pollution

Local undesirable land uses or (LULU), such as roads, factories, and other industrial facilities.  Other industrial facilities include heavy industrial agricultural operations, livestock facilities, and mineral or natural resource gathering operations.

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