Ch.11 - Environmental Justice

• Environmental justice


  • Upholds rights of all to be protected from environmental degradation and its health impacts
  • Pushes for precautionary approach
  • Demands that regulatory agencies proactively redress disproportionate and cumulative health risk burdens
• Research shows health inequalities linked to environmental and social conditions, combined with vulnerability factors
• Double jeopardy


  (Institute of Medicine, 1999): environmental hazard exposures + socioeconomic stressors (race, poverty, linguistic isolation, children, disabled)
• Environmental justice movement emerged in the late 1980s (roots-civil rights, labor, etc.)
• "all people and communities are entitled to equal protection of environmental and public health laws and regulations"
• "fair treatment of all people…" (U.S EPA Office of Environmental Justice)
• Hydroelectric power company: New Kanawha PowerCo.; a subsidiary of union Carbide Co. refused to provide safeguards to workers (no masks or appropriate clothing), 700 tunnel diggers died of silicosis (lung disease), 500 were African-American; in large part company refused safeguards; compensation based on race


  1930s
• United farm workers union advocated for restrictions/bans on organochlorine and acutely toxic organophosphate pesticides (ex. DDT)

  1960s
• Warren county, NC: start of "modern" EJ movement, the state put 60,000 (130M pounds) tons of PCB-contaminated (man-made toxins) soil into a landfill site, the community where they decided to put the landfill in was 65% African-American, Africans protested PCB landfill siting, Environmental and civil rights communities (blacks and whites) protested
• Mobilized against: industrial contamination and pollution, mining of industrial land = reservations, advocated for enhanced participation in environmental and land-use decision making
• EPA report Environmental Equity: Reducing risk for All Communities, 1st set of federal EJ policies, supported the claims of EJ, laid out the first set of EJ policy proposals, led to the creation of NEJAC and the office of environmental equity within the EPA

• President clinton issued executive order 12898 directing all federal agencies to consider EJ in federal actions


  1994
• Elements of EJ


  • Upholds rights of all to be protected from environmental degradation and its health impacts
  • Pushes for precautionary approach
  • Demands that regulatory agencies proactively redress disproportionate and cumulative health risk burdens
• Precautionary principle


  In face of uncertain evidence, regulatory actions should PREVENT HARM from environmental hazards, especially for vulnerable populations (children, children of color)
• Recent trends: cumulative risks from environmental & social stressors, community-driven science, enhanced public participation in policy formulation, new issues (climate change, food security, etc..)
• Lead (PB)


  Heavy metal, ubiquitous environmental contaminant, used since ancient times, many applications (paints, weights, glazes), organic Pb once in gasoline (anti-knock), leaded gas, painted now banned in US but Pb persists in soil and house dust, symptoms of lead poisoning are not evident until DOSE IS HIGH
• We use GRAPHITE instead of lead in pencils now
• Story: river in detroit has was receiving leaded water; a nurse found out → color was going DOWN due to water color and nurses found out when a child patient was brought in
• COLD water is better than hot when dealing with lead
• Lead affects


  Multiple organ systems, especially nervous system, children more susceptible than adults → less hygienic and blood-brain barrier not fully developed, chronic, low-level exposure, reflected in elevated blood Pb levels associated with decreased IQ and learning disabilities
• Lead exposure is an EJ issue in U.S since data show black children have higher blood Pb levels than white children
• Landmark report, Toxic Wastes and Race in the US, United Church of Christ, 1st national study, found that RACE was the most significant that differentiates between areas, follow-up found persistent racial, economic disparities in waste facility


  1987
• Research to date shows disproportionate exposure, racial disparities persist across economic strata
• Minority move-in hypothesis


  (toxic facilities came before, minorities move into polluted areas because they are cheaper = FALSE), hypothesis: factories build polluted areas into minority communities
• Air pollution, drinking water contaminant exposure studies and biomarker studies also show disparities
• Cumulative impact


  Vulnerable populations impacted by multiple environmental & social stressors; current regulatory paradigm fails
• Key concepts underlying scientific knowledge


  • Risk assessment does not address social vulnerability; alternative approaches (e.g. health impact assessment, impact screening) may help
  • Racial/ethnic, socioeconomic health disparities in asthma, heart disease, low birth weight, outcomes linked to social, environmental factors
  • Inequalities in environmental hazard exposures linked to increased risk of adverse health outcomes
  • Intrinsic (e.g biologic) factors can modify effects of environmental factors, contribute to differences in environmentally-mediated disease
  • Extrinsic social vulnerability factors at individual, community levels may amplify effects of environmental hazards
• Generational equity


  • Children bear a disproportionate burden of adverse health effects if toxic environmental exposures, complex, sensitive development processes can be disrupted (pregnancy, childhood) timing of hazard exposures requires consideration, children are not small adults - differ in exposure, sensitivity, US policies: EO 13045 requires federal agencies to consider children's particular vulnerability
• Climate gap


  Disproportionate impact of climate change and mitigation on certain social groups (poor, people of color, disabled)
• Social inequality and environmental quality


  Social inequality: increasing in magnitude (degree) and rate in the US, implications on population health; evidence of adverse effects of income inequality on overall health and mortality, unequal societies may be more likely to pollute their environment
• The POOREST OF THE POOR ARE AFFECTED
• 3 possible mechanisms


  • Asymmetry in power between the privileged and the poor
  • Wealthy accrue more of the economic benefits if pollution activities (producers and consumers), are better able to avoid the harmful effects of pollution (ex: move away from areas into clean ones)
  • Inequality leads people to consume MORE because of a desire to emulate the privileged, inequalities in environmental hazard exposures linked to increased risk of adverse health outcomes, increased overall economic production, longer work hours: may induce changes in environmental intensity of lifestyles, as income inequality rises, economic elite often increase isolate themselves, inequality erodes social cohesion and trust, increases competition & insecurity about future, erodes investment in public that lessen societal impact
• In the U.S., the modern environmental justice movement has roots in all of the following other movements EXCEPT...


  right to free speech
• The modern environmental justice movement in the US emerged in 1982 when a predominantly African American community in Warren, North Caroline protested the siting of what type of facility in their community?


  hazardous waste landfill
• childhood lead exposure is considered an environmental justice issue in the US because data shows that ____.

  black children have higher blood lead levels than white children
• In the US, longitudinal studies of demographic disparities in hazardous facility siting provide evidence refuting the minority move-in hypothesis, which is the idea that minorities move to locations w/ environmental hazardous because of lower housing prices and other market dynamics
• The cumulative impacts of social vulnerability, environmental exposure inequalities, and biological/physiological susceptibility combine to form _____ among racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups.

  health disparities
• The idea that the wealthy set the standard for what constitutes a high-status lifestyle, leading others to consume more, is an example of how ______ can contribute to environmental degradation.

  social inequality