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Risk factors for environmental injustices


Greenaction, a San Francisco based environmental justice organization, has been working with the local community to document the cases of infant deaths and believes there are issues of environmental injustice due to the city's demographics. Within Kettleman City's population that is 25 years or older, only 30% have completed high school or its equivalent, and 56.4% have less than a 9th grade education. The majority of residents are from Mexico and are Spanish-speaking. In the 2000 Census, the median household income was $22,409 and 43.7 % of the population was living below the poverty level. Compared to the US population, Kettleman City residents are younger, and are more likely to rent rather than own their homes.

Environmental impacts
On January 29, 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger directed the Cal/EPA and California Department of Public Health(CDPH) to assess the potential for a relationship between environmental contaminants and health defects. This was spurred by community concerns regarding a recent outbreak of birth defects. The Chemical Waste Management Kettleman Hills facility was found to not be the single direct causal factor in the recent birth defects.The Cal/EPA tested the air, soil, and water at agricultural operations, the Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility, the Kettleman City Elementary School, and possible illegal dump sites for 27 pesticides, air pollutants, arsenic, lead, soil and soil gas contaminants. The Cal/EPA found higher than normal levels of arsenic in tap and well water, low levels of lead in town and school wells, benzene in air near treatment unit that removes chemical from well water, one home yard that had high levels of a banned pesticide.

Potential health effects
The community of Kettleman City has suspected negative health effects caused by the Waste Facility multiple times.

In 2009, the community suspected birth defects caused by the waste facility. However, CDPH has not determined Kettleman Waste Facility to be the cause of health effects. The Kings County Department of Public Health stated that it would continue its investigation but that their preliminary determination was "that to the extent that a cluster may exist, it is most likely a random event unrelated to any environmental exposure unique to Kettleman City."

Even though “scientifically rigorous studies of causes of human birth defects generally require evaluation of hundreds of birth defects or more", the CDPH's objectives were limited and largely focused on evaluating risk factors because of the fewer than dozen cases of birth defects in Kettleman City. The CDPH investigated a total of 11 eligible children born with major, structural birth defects between 2007 and March 31, 2010 to mothers who had lived in the Kettleman City area during their pregnancies. Through a mixed-methods approach consisting of interviews and supplementary medical history reports the CDPH did not find a specific cause or environmental exposure among the mother that would explain the increase in the number of children born with birth defects. It was found that some children had multiple abnormalities, while others had single defects. All the birth defects represented different underlying conditions, but a few shared some features. None of the mothers interviewed during the investigation used tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs that could cause the birth defects. Furthermore, the mothers were all in good health and did not have suspect medical histories.

The conclusions of the investigation have been contended by Greenaction and the local community group "El Pueblo para El Aire y Agua Limpoio" ("People for Clean Air and water"). Bradley Angel of Greenaction in Kettleman City argues that the investigation was not thorough enough, neglecting to test blood and tissue samples of those affected. He also notes that the investigation did not adequately test for pesticides inside homes.