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Environmental
Justice Literature Review
The
following abstracts provide an overview of some of the literature available on
Environmental Justice as it relates to public health. This selection, which is organized chronologically with the most recent studies
listed first, is not an exhaustive list of the literature available on the topic. For additional information, you may want to refer
to the National Library of Medicine.
Toward Environmental
Justice: Research, Education, and Health Policy Needs (1999)Committee on
Environmental Justice, Institute of Medicine
Driven
by community-based organizations and supported by a growing body of
literature, the environmental justice movement contends that poor and
minority populations are burdened with more than their share of toxic
waste, pesticide runoff, and other hazardous byproducts of our modern
economic life. Is environmental degradation worse in poor and minority
communities? Do these communities suffer more adverse health effects as
a result? The committee addresses these questions and explores how
current fragmentation in health policy could be replaced with greater
coordination among federal, state, and local parties.
The book is
highlighted with case studies from five locations where the committee
traveled to hear citizen and researcher testimony. It offers detailed
examinations in these areas: (1) identifying environmental hazards and
assessing risk for populations of varying ethnic, social, and economic
backgrounds and the need for methodologies that uniquely suit the
populations at risk; (2) identifying basic, clinical, and occupational
research needs and meeting challenges to research on minorities; (3) expanding environmental education from an ecological focus to a public
health focus for all levels of health professionals; and (4) legal and ethical
aspects of environmental health issues. The book makes recommendations
to decision makers in the areas of public health, research, and
education of health professionals and outlines health policy
considerations.
http://newton.nap.edu/books/0309064074/html/1.html
A Citizen's Guide to Using Federal Environmental Laws to Secure
Environmental Justice, The Environmental Law Institute
The report illustrates how citizens can use existing authorities to
help ensure that communities of color and low- income communities do not
bear a disproportionate share of pollution. The handbook is designed to
introduce citizens to some of the ways in which environmental protection
laws can be used to secure environmental justice. For more information,
visit ELIs
Web site.
J Occup Environ Med 2000
May;42(5):469-74
Race, gender, and social status as
modifiers of the effects of PM10 on mortality.
Zanobetti A, Schwartz J
Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School
of Public Health, Boston, Mass. 02115, USA. azanob@sparc6a.harvard.edu
Interest
has recently been focused on which populations are most at risk of premature mortality
induced by air pollution. This coincides with greater concern about environmental justice.
We analyzed total mortality in the four largest US cities with daily measurements of
particulate matter less than 10 microns (PM10) and combined the results to determine
whether race, sex, and education are potential modifiers of the effects of PM10 on
mortality. We computed daily counts of deaths stratified by sex, race, and education in
each city and investigated their associations with PM10 in a Poisson regression model. We
combined the results by using inverse variance weighted averages. We found evidence of
effect modification by sex, with the slope in female deaths one third larger than in male
deaths, whereas for social factors and race we found only weak evidence of effect
modification. In general, the effect modification appeared modest compared with other
reports of substantial effect modification by medical conditions.
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Risk Anal 1999 Aug;19(4):621-34
The power of perception: health risk attributed to air pollution in an urban industrial
neighborhood.
Elliott
SJ, Cole DC, Krueger P,
Voorberg N, Wakefield S
School of Geography and Geology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. elliotts@mcmaster.ca
This
paper describes a multi-stakeholder process designed to assess the potential health risks
associated with adverse air quality in an urban industrial neighborhood. The paper briefly
describes the quantitative health risk assessment conducted by scientific experts, with
input by a grassroots community group concerned about the impacts of adverse air quality
on their health and quality of life. In this case, rather than accept the views of the
scientific experts, the community used their powers of perception to advantage by
successfully advocating for a professionally conducted community health survey. This
survey was designed to document, systematically and rigorously, the health risk
perceptions community members associated with exposure to adverse air quality in their
neighborhood.
This paper describes the institutional and community contexts within which
the research is situated as well as the design, administration, analysis, and results of
the community health survey administered to 402 households living in an urban industrial
neighborhood in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. These survey results served to legitimate the
community's concerns about air quality and to help broaden operational definitions of
“health.” In addition, the results
of both health risk assessment exercises served to keep issues of air quality on the local
political agenda. Implications of these findings for our understanding of the
environmental justice process as well as the ability of communities to influence
environmental health policy are discussed.
Appl Occup Environ Hyg
2000 Feb;15(2):217-27
Lead abatement training for
underserved populations: lessons learned.
Sterling DA, Lewis RD, Serrano F, Dugbatey K, Evans RG, Sterling LS
School of Public Health, Saint Louis University, Missouri, USA.
An
environmental-justice (equity) grant program was used to make accessible an existing
lead-training program to minority persons and residents of low-income communities. The
purpose of the program was to enhance the knowledge base within the communities concerning
lead hazards and intervention strategies and expand possibilities for employment in the lead abatement industry. Barriers to
attendance were anticipated and addressed, and included transportation, meals, license
application fees, reminders of course date and location, and day care. The program was evaluated through measures of
recruitment rates, pre- and post-testing scores, and change in perception of confidence at
pre-test, post-test, and at four-month follow-up. Fee-paying registrants over the same
time period were used as a comparison group. First day attendance rates for individuals
recruited into the equity-grant was 59 percent, of these 94 percent completed all days.
Equity and fee-paying groups had similar scores on the pre-test (p=.209), while mean
scores on the final exam differed significantly (p<.001) between the groups and were
77 percent and 85 percent, respectively. After adjusting for demographic and course type
attended, perceptions of self-efficacy (benefit) and outcome-effectiveness (confidence)
increased significantly from pre- to post-tests for both groups and remained at
post-course levels at four months follow-up.
Lessons
learned include: (1) lead abatement and other related activities can be successfully
taught through traditional training methods; (2) a necessary element for delivery of
educational services to minority groups is forming workable ties with local community
groups, but eligibility requirements must be maintained; (3) once barriers to first-day
attendance are overcome, the information necessary to perform specific work skills can be
taught; (4) positive changes in belief are not dependent on minority status, income, or
education levels; (5) training and education increased confidence in ability to perform
learned skills, and belief that there will be a beneficial outcome when performed for
themselves, their families, and communities; and (6) a consensus regarding applicability
of regulations must be achieved among federal, state, and local communities.
Health Place 1999 Jun; 5(2):139-56
Environmental health metanarratives: an analysis of policy making in Ontario, Canada.
Iannantuono A, Eyles J
School of Geography and Geology and Environmental Health Program, McMaster University,
Hamilton, Ont., Canada.
This paper provides a narrative analysis of a
policy document, issued by the Ontario Premier's Council on Health, Well-Being and Social
Justice, entitled "Our Environment, Our Health." It begins by outlining the
background for the production of the document and establishing the nature of narrative
analysis. The intention of this method is to reveal dominant and suppressed ideas through
identifying narrative, non-stories and counter-stories. It then goes on to provide an
analysis of the overall policy piece and its constituent parts, healthy ecosystems,
healthy communities, and healthy workplaces. The document's power is seen not only in its
authorship but also in demonstrating the moral basis of individual responsibility to
achieve collective targets and to undertake collection action.
Anal Environ
Epidemiol 1999 Sep-Oct; 9(5):435-45
Evaluations of primary metals from NHEXAS Arizona: distributions and preliminary
exposures. National Human Exposure Assessment Survey.
O'Rourke MK, Van de Water PK, Jin S, Rogan SP, Weiss AD,
Gordon SM, Moschandreas DM, Lebowitz MD
Environmental and Occupational Health,
Arizona Prevention Center, The University of Arizona, Tucson 85721-0468, USA.
maryk@hrp.arizona.edu
NHEXAS
AZ is a multimedia, multipathway exposure assessment survey designed to evaluate metals
and other analytes. This paper reports the analyte-specific concentration distributions in
each of the media examined (air, soil, house dust, food, beverage, and water), for various
methodologies used (inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy and hydride
generation-atomic absorption spectroscopy). Results
are reported for the five primary metals (Pb, As, Cd, Cr, and Ni). Ingestion was the most
important pathway of exposure. Metal concentrations in air were very low (ng/m3) and found
only above the 90th percentile. Metals were commonly found in house dust and soil. Exposure transfer coefficients minimize the
importance of this component for those over the age of 6 years. When ranked by exposure,
food, beverage, and water appeared to be the primary contributors of metal exposure in
NHEXAS AZ. For instance, at the 90th percentile, Pb was undetected in air, found at 131
and 118 microg/m3 in floor dust and soil, respectively, and measured at 16
microg/kg in
food, 7.1 microg/kg beverage, and 2.0 and 1.3
microg/l in drinking and tap water, respectively. We calculated preliminary estimates of
total exposure (microg/day) for each participant and examined them independently by age, gender, and ethnicity as reported by the
subjects in the NHEXAS questionnaire. At the 90th percentile for Pb, total exposures were
64 microg/day across all subjects (n=176); adult men (n=55) had the greatest exposure (73
microg/day) and children (n=35) the least (37 microg/day). Hispanics (n=54) had greater
exposure to Pb (68 microg/day) than non-Hispanics (n=119; 50 microg/day), whereas
non-Hispanics had greater exposure for all other metals reported. These results have
implications related to environmental justice. The NHEXAS project provides information to
make informed decisions for protecting and promoting appropriate public health policy.
J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 1999
Jan-Feb;9(1):56-65
Environmental justice and statistical summaries of differences in exposure distributions.
Waller LA, Louis TA, Carlin BP
University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, Minneapolis 55455, USA. lwaller@sph.emory.edu
Recent
regulatory action requires the assessment of environmental justice (equitable protection
from the burdens of environmental hazards across sociodemographic subpopulations) in the
siting of hazardous waste sites, and prioritization of environmental remediation efforts.
Assessments of environmental justice require linking exposure, demographic, and health
data. The geographic nature of the data makes the use of geographic information systems
attractive for environmental justice assessments. Typical
geographic assessments compare the composition of “exposed”
populations, while typical statistical assessments focus on differences in health outcomes
between population subgroups, possibly adjusted for exposure. We outline an alternate
approach based on summarized differences between exposure distributions within each
population subgroup. We illustrate how such
summaries provide a tool for site evaluation (for example, defining exposure inequities resulting
from locating a new potential hazard at any of a number of possible sites). In addition,
we describe summaries, based on dose-response relationships, to describe risk differences
imposed by the observed exposure differences. Reported toxic emissions from Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania illustrate the approach.
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J Expo Anal Environ
Epidemiol 1999 Jan-Feb;9(1):18-28
GIS-based measures of
environmental equity: exploring their sensitivity and significance.
Sheppard E, Leitner H, McMaster RB, Tian H
Department of Geography, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 5545
In
order to determine whether principles of environmental justice have been violated, a large
number of empirical studies have been carried out to ascertain whether minority and
low-income populations are disproportionately exposed to industrial pollution. This study
provides a comparative evaluation of two commonly employed proximity measures in GIS-based
environmental equity assessment, examining their influence on the results of the analysis,
and proposes a methodology for evaluating the significance of these results. 1990 census
data on population characteristics and data from the 1995 EPA's toxic release inventory
(TRI) for the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota are used. These results also allow a preliminary
assessment of environmental equity/inequity in potential exposure to airborne toxic
chemicals for racial minorities, poor people, and children in Minneapolis. In the third part of the paper we develop
and employ a geographic randomization methodology for assessing the significance of these
results.
J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 1999
Jan-Feb;9(1):9-17
Science and policy implications of defining environmental justice.
Phillips CV, Sexton K
Division of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455, USA.
Although
'environmental justice' is an increasingly important issue for policy makers and
researchers, it remains for many a vague and abstract notion that is hard to define in
practical, real-world terms. Part of the problem is that environmental justice is a
complex, multidimensional construct that cannot easily be defined. Our aim in this article
is to identify fundamental dimensions of environmental justice and highlight the resulting
questions that are an inherent part of putting principles into practice. We argue that to
have a constructive and informed debate about this emotionally charged topic, it is
necessary to have a clear and workable definition of environmental justice. We do not
propose our own definition, but instead point out that there are many possible legitimate
definitions depending on one's beliefs, opinions, and values. The central point is not
that a particular definition is right or wrong, but rather than choosing a definition has
distinct implications for the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of both policy
and science. These critical choices should be made explicit so that public dialogue can
focus on the substance of this important policy issue
J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 1999
Jan-Feb;9(1):3-8
Looking at environmental justice from an environmental health perspective.
Sexton K, Adgate JL
Division of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455, USA.
Although scientific evidence is scarce and uneven, there
are mounting concerns that environmental health risks are born disproportionately by
members of the population who are poor and nonwhite. From an environmental health
perspective, research to reduce critical uncertainties in health risk assessment must
necessarily be at the heart of efforts to evaluate and resolve issues of environmental
justice--helping to define the dimensions of the problem, understand its causes, and
identify effective and efficient solutions. The full range of environmental health
sciences, including exposure analysis,
epidemiology, toxicology, biostatistics, and surveillance monitoring, is needed to build a
strong scientific foundation for informed decision making. This is the best and surest way
to promote health and safety for all members of our society, regardless of age, ethnicity,
gender, health condition, race, or socioeconomic status.
Environ Res 1995 Apr;69(1):15-30
Race, class, and environmental health: a review and systematization of the
literature.
Brown P
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA.
This
paper analyzes and systematizes the race and class differentials in exposure to toxic
hazards and actual health outcomes. Research is categorized into the following:
proximity to known hazards includes (1) presence of hazardous waste sites
and facilities (landfills, incinerators, Superfund sites), (2) exposure to
air pollution, and (3) exposure to various environmental hazards (for
example, toxic releases and hazards in pesticides and foods).
Regulation, amelioration and cleanup includes (1) record of decisions (RODs) and cleanups
at NPL sites and (2) regulatory action, as measured by assessed fines for environmental
pollution. Health effects includes (1) specific health outcomes which are related to
environmental burden (for example, blood lead levels). Proximity to prospective hazards includes
(1) siting decisions for incinerators, hazardous waste sites, and nuclear storage sites.
The overwhelming bulk of evidence supports the “environmental justice" belief
that environmental hazards are inequitably distributed by class, and especially race.
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