Enviro-Health Links - Environmental Justice
Overview
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) defines environmental justice as 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." Environmental justice is also perceived as an imminent national health issue and is viewed as a critical need to ensure that communities comprised predominantly of people of color or low income populations receive equal protection under environmental laws.
Historically, low income and/or minority communities have been dumping grounds for hazardous waste. Disproportional treatment of this nature, along with other social determinants, has propelled the environmental justice movement to the forefront of national health concerns. Pioneering efforts stemming from community advocates to staunch environmentalists have been instrumental in bringing to light the interconnections between the environment, racial/ethnic differences, income inequities, and human health disparities. Significant factors in what is known as environmental racism include any environmental policy, practice, or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages (whether intended or unintended) individuals, groups, or communities based on race or color.
Over the years, the environmental justice movement has been the primary impetus behind policy development targeting unfair, unjust, and illegal practices. However, despite these achievements, environmental contamination continues and remains a major health and social issue.
Government Information Resources
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Environmental Justice
Community Planning and Development
U. S. Environment Protection Agency
- American Indian Environmental Office
- National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC)
- Environmental Justice
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) - Environmental Justice in Waste Programs
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response - Toolkit for Assessing Potential Allegations of Environmental Injustice
Office of Environmental Justice
U. S. Department of Transportation
- Environmental Justice
Federal Highway Administration - Environmental Justice
Departmental Office of Civil Rights
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
- Minority Health/Environmental Justice
Environmental Health Perspectives - Environmental Justice ..... What does that mean?
Kids’ Pages, Environmental Justice
Federal Statutes, Regulations, and Reports
- Brownfields Title VI Case Studies: Summary Reports, 1999 (PDF, 130 KB)
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency - The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). 1980
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Environmental Justice Policies & Guidance
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations, 1994
U.S. Department of Energy - Summary of the Emergency Planning & Community Right to Know Act 42 U.S.C. 11001 et seq., 1986
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency - Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) Overview, 1986
U. S. Environment Protection Agency
Brownfields
According to the Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields are abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.
Brownfields lie abandoned and often contaminated from past uses. Unused or under-utilized, they are impediments to economic development in rural and urban communities across the United States. Brownfields can potentially cause harm to human health and the environment, reduce employment opportunities and tax revenue, contribute to neighborhood crime such as theft, dumping or other illegal activities, reduce surrounding property value and contribute to neighborhood blight, limit economic growth and development and contribute to urban sprawl.
Definition taken from the Community Environmental Resource Program (CERP), St. Louis, MO.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Brownfields Cleanup and Redevelopment
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. - Brownfields National Partnership Action Agenda
Community Planning and Development - Brownfields Title VI Case Studies: Summary Reports, 1999 (PDF, 130 KB)
Other Brownfields Resources
- Brownfields
Northeast Midwest Institute - Brownfields. ICMA E-Library Documents (ICMA)
International City/County Management Association - Brownfields/Superfund
Local Government Environmental Assistance Network
Bibliography, 1990-1997
Searches from the National Library of Medicine
PubMed - Biomedical journal literature
TOXLINE - Special journal literature, technical reports and archival collections
Environmental Justice Centers
- Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice
- Center for Health, Environment and Justice
- Environmental Law & Justice Center
Texas Southern University, Thurgood Marshall School of Law
Other Resources
- Asian Pacific Environmental Network
- Community Coalition for Environmental Justice
- Environmental Justice
Sierra Club - Environmental Justice Case Studies
University of Michigan - Environmental Justice
Environmental Justice and Health Union - Social Equity and Environmental Justice
University of Connecticut, Social Equity and Environmental Justice. The Arctic Circle.
Books
- Eliminating Health Disparities : Measurement and Data Needs
Panel on DHHS Collection of Race and Ethnicity Data Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council ; Michele Ver Ploeg and Edward Perrin, editors. Washington, D.C. : The National Academies Press, c2004. - Ensuring Environmental Health in Postindustrial Cities : Workshop Summary
Bernard D. Goldstein ... [et al.], editors ; Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine, Board on Health Sciences Policy, Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Washington, D.C. : National Academies Press, c2003 - Toward Environmental Justice : Research, Education, and Health Policy Needs
Committee on Environmental Justice, Health Sciences Policy Program, Health Sciences Section, Institute of Medicine Washington, D.C. : National Academy Press, 1999 - Unequal Treatment : Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care
Brian D. Smedley, Adrienne Y. Stith, and Alan R. Nelson, editors ; Committee on Understanding and Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, Board on Health Sciences Policy, Institute of Medicine. Washington, D.C. : National Academies Press, c2003
Selected References
- Dumping in Dixie: Race, class, and environmental quality.
Bullard, Robert D.
Boulder : Westview Press, 1990. - Environmental Equity
Congressional Research Service Report for Congress
National Library for the Environment.
National Council for Science and the Environment. 1992. - Environmental Inequality Bibliography
Department of Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz. 1997. - Environmental Justice & Transportation: A Citizen's Handbook
Shannon Cairns, Jessica Greig, and Martin Wachs
January 2003, Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California. - Environmental Justice in Latino Communities:
The Role of Local Government
International City/County Management Association (ICMA). 1996. - Fighting Environmental Racism:
A Selected Annotated Bibliography
Weintraub, Irwin
Brooklyn College Library - Index of Environmental Justice Publications
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. 1994.
Información en Español
- El medio ambiente y su salud:
Justicia ambiental y participación comunitaria
Agencia de Protección Ambiental de los Estados Unidos - Justicia Ambiental
Agencia de Protección Ambiental de los Estados Unidos - Justicia Ambiental
Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades
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