PFAS-Contaminated Pesticides Applied near Public Supply Wells Disproportionately Impact Communities of Color in California.

Contaminated drinking water from widespread environmental pollutants such as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) poses a rising threat to public health. PFAS monitoring in groundwater is limited and fails to consider pesticides found to contain PFAS as a potential contamination source. Given previous findings on the disproportionate exposure of communities of Color to both pesticides and PFAS, we investigated disparities in PFAS-contaminated pesticide applications in California based on community-level sociodemographic characteristics. We utilized statewide pesticide application data from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and recently reported concentrations of PFAS chemicals detected in eight pesticide products to calculate the areal density of PFAS applied within 1 km of individual community water systems' (CWSs) supply wells. Spatial regression analyses suggest that statewide, CWSs that serve a greater proportion of Latinx and non-Latinx People of Color residents experience a greater areal density of PFAS applied and greater likelihood of PFAS application near their public supply wells. These results highlight agroecosystems as potentially important sources of PFAS in drinking water and identify areas that may be at risk of PFAS contamination and warrant additional PFAS monitoring and remediation.

Access for sale? Overlying rights, land transactions, and groundwater in California.

Climate change intensifies longstanding tensions over groundwater sustainability and equity of access among users. Though private land ownership is a primary mechanism for accessing groundwater in many regions, few studies have systematically examined the extent to which farmland markets transform groundwater access patterns over time. This study begins to fill this gap by examining farmland transactions overlying groundwater from 2003-17 in California. We construct a novel dataset that downscales well construction behavior to the parcel level, and we use it to characterize changes in groundwater access patterns by buyer type on newly transacted parcels in the San Joaquin Valley groundwater basin during the 2011-17 drought. Our results demonstrate large-scale transitions in farmland ownership, with 21.1% of overlying agricultural acreage statewide sold at least once during the study period and with the highest rates of turnover occurring in critically overdrafted basins. By 2017, annual individual farmland acquisitions had halved, while acquisitions by limited liability companies increased to one-third of all overlying acres purchased. Together, these trends signal increasing corporate farmland acquisitions; new corporate farmland owners are associated with the construction, on comparable parcels, of agricultural wells 77-81 feet deeper than those drilled by new individual landowners. We discuss the implications of our findings for near-term governance of groundwater, and their relevance for understanding structural inequities in exposure to future groundwater level declines.

Race, Racism, and Drinking Water Contamination Risk From Oil and Gas Wells in Los Angeles County, 2020.

Objectives. To evaluate the potential for drinking water contamination in Los Angeles (LA) County, California, based on the proximity of supply wells to oil and gas wells, and characterize risk with respect to race/ethnicity and measures of structural racism. Methods. We identified at-risk community water systems (CWSs) as those with supply wells within 1 kilometer of an oil or gas well. We characterized sociodemographics of the populations served by each CWS by using the 2013-2017 American Community Survey. We estimated the degree of redlining in each CWS service area by using 1930s Home Owners' Loan Corporation security maps, and characterized segregation by using the Index of Concentration at the Extremes. Multivariable regression models estimated associations between these variables and CWS contamination risk. Results. A quarter of LA County CWSs serving more than 7 million residents have supply wells within 1 kilometer of an oil or gas well. Higher percentages of Hispanic, Black, and Asian/Pacific Islander residents and a greater degree of redlining and residential segregation were associated with higher contamination risk. Conclusions. Redlining and segregation predict drinking water contamination risks from oil development in LA County, with people of color at greater risk. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(11):1191-1200. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307374).

Sports preparticipation examination to screen college athletes for Chlamydia trachomatis.

PURPOSE: This study assessed the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis in the college athlete and the benefit of using the sports preparticipation examination (PPE) as a screening opportunity. METHODS: Chlamydia teaching and screening was part of the sports PPE. The 439 athletes (220 men and 219 women) answered a questionnaire and provided urine specimens. Using positive test results as an indication of prevalence, the chlamydia prevalence rate was calculated by sex and race. Using the questionnaire responses, we determined the students' accessibility to health care and the percentage of sexually active students who were ever offered chlamydial screening. RESULTS: Thirteen of 439 athletes tested positive. One test was a false positive. The test positivity was 2.7%: 3.2% men and 2.2% women. In sexually active athletes, the test positivity rose to 3.8%: 4.0% men and 3.7% women. African American athletes had a higher prevalence of 9.1%: 8.9% in men and 9.5% in women, making them six times more likely to have chlamydia than Caucasian athletes (odds ratio = 6.43, 95% confidence interval = 1.58-30.55). Number of partners, contraceptive type, symptoms, and prior history of chlamydia were not statistically different between groups. Over 75% of students saw their private physicians, yet of the sexually active students, only 31% of women and 6.8% of men were ever offered chlamydial screening. CONCLUSIONS: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines recommending annual chlamydial screening for all sexually active women younger than 26 yr are not being met in the community. Taking advantage of opportunities, including the mandated sports PPE, where sexually active men and women 25 yr and younger interface with the health care system to screen for C. trachomatis, is crucial to decreasing the continued rise of chlamydial infection.