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What
Is Environmental Justice?
Defining the Terms
Environmental justice, environmental equity, and
environmental racism are different terms used to described a growing aspect of
environmental activism that focuses on the disparate impact of environmental pollution in
low-income and minority communities. Because the concepts associated with each of these
labels are complex and multi-dimensional, each of these terms has many possible
definitions and will be used in different ways, depending on one's beliefs, opinions,
values, and organizational affiliation.
The Board has chosen to apply the term
“environmental justice” to the work it is doing to address environmental
problems that disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities. The Board is working with the following
definition:
"Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement
of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with
respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental
laws, regulations, and policies."
Several other terms that are used in the community include the following:
Environmental Equity
- The equal
treatment and protection of racial, ethnic, and low-income groups under environmental
statutes, regulations, and practices. Essentially
environmental policy applied in a manner that yields no substantial differential impacts
between the dominant and other groups.
Environmental Racism -
"Racial discrimination in environmental policy-making, enforcement of regulations and
laws, and targeting of communities of color for toxic waste disposal and citing of
polluting industries." --Reverend Benjamin E. Chavis, Jr., Ex-Chairman
of the NAACP
Environmental Classism -
The results of and the process by which implementation of environmental policy creates
intended or unintended consequences which have disproportionate impacts (adverse or
beneficial) on low-income communities.
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Health
Disparities in the Context of Environmental Justice
The
basic premise of the environmental justice movement is that minority and economically
disadvantaged populations assume greater risks from exposure to environmental hazards than
do others. These compromised populations are
known to have poorer health status than the overall population and have higher rates of a
variety of diseases, including cancers and asthma. Many
complex factors interact to produce health disparities among minority and low-income
populations. Behavioral choices, nutrition,
access to medical care, genetic predisposition, and environmental and occupational
exposures, over which individuals have little control, all contribute and are related.
Where one lives and works is often less a matter of choice than the result of
socioeconomic status. It is usually the case
that people in the lower socioeconomic strata are more likely to live in the most
hazardous environments and to work in the most hazardous occupations. The Environmental Justice movement focuses
on the contributing role of environmental factors in health disparities and works toward
eliminating them.
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More on the Problem of Health
Disparities
There are documented
health status differences among racial and ethnic minorities and among low-income
populations in the United States. In
Washington State, racial
and ethnic minorities have higher rates of at least six diseases, including HIV/AIDS,
cardiovascular disease, tuberculosis, cancer, diabetes, and asthma. In addition, racial and ethnic minorities in
Washington have poorer birth outcomes, higher teen birth rates, more behavioral risks,
more intentional and unintentional injuries, and poorer access to medical care than
Washington’s overall population. The
Board’s priority work plan on Health Disparities
provides a summary of data available on health disparities.
There exist many federal,
state, and local programs to address the problem of health disparities. One of the major
goals of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2010 is to eliminate health
disparities that exist in the country and that are especially apparent in minority,
low-income, and/or indigenous communities. The
Washington State Board of Health has identified Health Disparities (with an emphasis on Minority
Workforce Development) as another one of its five priority focus areas for 2000.
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