Environmental Injustice and Religion: Outdoor Air Pollution Disparities in Metropolitan Salt Lake City, Utah

The distributive environmental justice literature has expanded beyond examining only race- and class-based injustices, but no studies have focused on religion’s influence on disparate environmental risks. We address that gap using data from the decennial U.S. Census, American Community Survey, and Environmental Protection Agency for 2010 census tracts to examine a proxy measure of Mormon prevalence, racial and ethnic composition, and socioeconomic status as predictors of seven indicators of outdoor air pollution in metropolitan Salt Lake City, Utah. Results from multivariate generalized estimating equation (GEE) analyses show that greater Mormon prevalence and white composition each independently predict lower levels of air pollution; moreover, Mormon prevalence and whiteness are the strongest predictors in the models. Results also demonstrate that greater proportions of Hispanic, black, and Pacific Islander residents predict higher levels of air pollution, suggesting that systemic white privilege oppresses those groups such that they experience air pollution disparities. Mormons are socially privileged in Salt Lake City, and findings indicate that their collective power serves to protect them from air pollution. Exploratory GEE interaction analyses reveal that disparities in exposure to particulate matter based on higher Hispanic composition are attenuated under conditions of high Mormon prevalence. Findings indicate that white privilege or racial oppression and Mormon privilege operate distinctively and, to a lesser degree, interactively as determinants of distributive environmental injustices in Salt Lake City. Although affiliation with a contextually dominant religion (Mormonism) among residents in Salt Lake City shapes neighborhood patterns of environmental inequality, future studies should examine the role of religion in both producing and ameliorating environmental injustice.