Compound Signal
Industrial Burden
Industrial emissions exposure × Surrounding population
50 counties are firing this signal at the elevated threshold (≥70/100) right now.
What it measures
Composite of toxic-release-inventory facility density, PFAS contamination, agricultural pesticide use, and the inverse of total provider supply. Surfaces counties where the chemical-exposure burden converges with a broad healthcare-capacity deficit — the chronic-low-grade-exposure analog to the acute Wildfire Burden signal.
Component breakdown
Each component is independently percentile-ranked against all US counties (0–100), then blended into the final signal score using the weights below.
| Component | Weight | Source |
|---|---|---|
| TRI facility count | 35% | EPA Envirofacts |
| PFAS contamination | 25% | EPA UCMR5 / ECHO |
| Pesticide usage (kg) | 20% | USGS PNSP |
| Total provider access deficit | 20% | NPPES (inverted percentile) |
Evidence base
Chronic low-dose chemical exposure is hard to attribute to specific outcomes at the county level, which is why most county-health rankings ignore it. This signal is upstream-of-outcome by design: it flags where the exposure load is heavy and where the healthcare system is least equipped to compensate. The TRI weight reflects per-facility chronic-emission risk; PFAS captures drinking-water contamination; pesticide use proxies agricultural chemical loads; the provider-deficit leg makes this a CHNA-actionable signal rather than a pure environmental score.
EPA TRI program
EPA Toxics Release Inventory annual reporting under EPCRA Section 313. Per-facility chronic-emission tracking since 1986.
EPA UCMR5
EPA Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR5, 2023–2025) — nationwide PFAS sampling at all CWS over 3,300 connections.
Counties firing this signal
Top 50 counties at the elevated threshold (70/100) or above, sorted by score. Click any county for the full profile.
Methodology
Every Compound Signal on this platform is a versioned, weighted composite published transparently. See the full methodology — every weight, every threshold, every data source — on the methodology page.
View full methodology →