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
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Environmental Justice
Community Planning and Development
U. S. Environment Protection Agency
U. S. Department of Transportation
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
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
Other Resources
- Asian Pacific Environmental Network
- Environmental Justice
Sierra Club - Environmental Justice Case Studies
University of Michigan - Environmental Justice
Environmental Justice and Health Union - Environmental Law & Justice Center
Texas Southern University, Thurgood Marshall School of Law - The Arctic Circle: Social Equity and Environmental Justice
University of Connecticut
Selected References
- Dumping in Dixie: Race, class, and environmental quality
Bullard, Robert D., Boulder : Westview Press, 1990. - Environmental Equity (1992)
Congressional Research Service Report for Congress
National Library for the Environment, National Council for Science and the Environment. - Environmental Inequality Bibliography
Department of Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz. 1997. - Environmental Justice & Transportation: A Citizen's Handbook (PDF, 1.64 MB)
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 (PDF, 508 KB)
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
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
Disclaimer
Reference to an external Internet resource on this server does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement by the National Library of Medicine of the services or views described in that resource.
PDF documents are best viewed with the free Adobe® Reader