ETHNICITY AND RISK: THE CHARACTERISTICS OF POPULATIONS IN CENSUS WARDS CONTAINING MAJOR ACCIDENT HAZARDS IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Recent geographical and sociological research has focused on analysing the environmental equity and justice dimensions of the distribution of pollution and risk. In the US, where most of this research has taken place, studies have shown that ethnic minority and poor communities bear a disproportionate burden of environmental risk, leading to accusations of environmental racism and deliberate targeting of marginal communities in siting decisions. Little attention has been given to these issues in the UK. This paper reports on a preliminary study examining the ethnic characteristics of census wards containing a particular category of technological risk known as 'major accident hazards'. The ethnic characteristics of wards with and without major accident hazard sites are analysed at national and regional scales. This reveals some evidence of a disproportionate siting of major accident hazard sites in wards with higher Asian populations. However it is stressed that these results provide no more than a preliminary indication of a pattern of distribution to be investigated further and that there are a number of significant limitations with the analysis undertaken including the size of spatial unit utilised, the lack of differentiation between major accident hazard sites and the need to examine the relationship between ethnicity and other socio-economic variables. No definitive conclusions can be drawn at this stage as to the validity, significance or cause of the apparent bias in site locations.