I conduct a nationwide investigation of the relationship that toxic industrial pollution and the facilities that produce it have with trust and civic engagement within communities. Data on pollution exposure come from the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators Geographic Microdata (RSEI-GM) and Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data sets for the years 1995 to 1999. Data on trust and civic engagement come from the 2000 restricted-access Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey (SCCBS). Statistical analyses provide strong support for Freudenburg and Jones’ conceptualization of corrosive communities and indicate that exposures to more toxic air pollution associate negatively with various measures of trust, and that increased numbers of TRI facilities associate negatively with various measures of civic engagement. The implication is that exposure to toxic industrial air pollution and the facilities that produce it not only adversely affect the physical health of nearby communities, but also their social well-being and underlying capacities for collective action.

我对有毒工业污染及其产生的设施与社区内的信任和公民参与之间的关系进行了全国性调查。污染暴露数据来自 1995 年至 1999 年的风险筛选环境指标地理微数据 (RSEI-GM) 和有毒物质释放清单 (TRI) 数据集。信任和公民参与数据来自 2000 年限制访问的社会资本社区基准调查 (SCCBS)。统计分析为 Freudenburg 和 Jones 对腐蚀性社区的概念化提供了强有力的支持，并表明暴露于更有毒的空气污染与各种信任措施负相关，并且 TRI 设施数量的增加与各种公民参与措施负相关。