Extramural Research - Environment, Health and Society (EHS)
Research to Support Environmental Justice
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Cumulative Risk Assessment 2012 Webinar Series:
August 29, 2012 - View Webinar
September 26, 2012 - View Webinar
October 17, 2012 - View Webinar
November 28, 2012 - View Webinar
Environmental Justice: What's Science Got to Do With It?
MP3 Recordings of National Teleconference Calls (EPA STAR grantees & community partners discuss research impacts)
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.
For many years, the environmental justice movement and communities affected by multiple environmental issues have advocated for an environmental policy agenda that address issues of disproportionate environmental impacts and health burdens. Disparate health impacts may be attributable to one or more combinations of inequities related to harmful exposures or differentials in the ability to withstand or mitigate harms.
Executive Order 12898 Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations (PDF) (6 pp, 120 K) requires federal agencies, including the EPA, to make achieving environmental justice part of their mission by identifying and addressing the disproportionate impacts of their policies, activities and programs on racial minority and low income populations.
Advancement of EPA’s scientific agenda, methods, models, research, and information resources is necessary to address environmental justice stakeholder’s concerns about the environment, sustainability, disproportionate impacts and health inequalities.
WHAT IS EPA DOING?
Environmental Justice Roadmap
EPA announced Plan EJ 2014, which is a roadmap that will help EPA integrate environmental justice into the Agency’s programs, policies, and activities. Plan EJ 2014 highlights research and science tools initiatives as essential elements which will advance environmental justice across the EPA and the federal government.
EPA/NIH Disparities Research Partnership
EPA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) are partnering to support the establishment of transdisciplinary networks of excellence in health disparities research that engage in the complex interaction of biological, social and environmental determinants of population health. The EPA's NCER and NIMHD recently have funded 10 grant awards to support research initiatives and activities within NIMHD Centers of Excellence program.
Disproportionate Environmental Health Symposium 
EPA hosted a groundbreaking national meeting Strengthening Environmental Justice Research and Decision Making: A Symposium on the Science of Disproportionate Environmental Health Impacts to identify opportunities and research needs for better quantifying and characterizing disproportionate environmental health impacts on minority and low income populations that may result from environmental programs, policies, and activities.
View the agenda and presentations from the March 2010 Symposium
In March 2010, EPA released a report "An Update on Ongoing and Future EPA Actions to Empower Communities and Advance the Integration of Environmental Justice in Decision Making and Research (PDF)" (73 pp, 2.69 MB), to provide information on EPA's current and proposed actions that address suggestions at the March 2010 Symposium on disproportionate environmental health impacts and environmental justice.
Fourteen scientific reviews and one summary overview paper commissioned by the EPA during a symposium on the Science of Disproportionate Environmental Health Impacts in March 2010 were completed and are now published in the American Journal of Public Health. [Read More]
Multi-Media
- Webinar: Environmental Justice, Program Implementation and Decision making at EPA Watch Webinar now:
[Windows Media Player (2:01:30, 21.6 MB) | Podcast (2:01:30, 78.3 MB) | QuickTime (2:01:30, 79.1 MB)] Read Transcript (PDF) (24 pp, 251 K)
Learn about NCER-supported research in areas related to ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
- Understanding the Role of Nonchemical Stressors and Developing Analytic Methods for Cumulative Risk Assessments
- Environmental Justice: Partnerships for Communication
- Children's Environmental Health Centers (CEHCs)
- Tribal Research
- Centers of Excellence on Environment and Health Disparities
Learn about research methodologies best suited to address ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Connect to related ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE links, such as organizations, toolkits, online modules, and presentations.
- EPA’s Environmental Justice website
- We Act for Environmental Justice
- Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University
- Data Center Research for Justice
- Health Impact Project
- Human Impact Partners
- Cumulative Impacts Science Law and Policy
- Community-based Participatory Research Listserve and network
Recommended Reading (journal, articles and reports) that address Environmental Justice
- Additional reading in our eLibrary