By Sarah Howard
What does racism have to do with the environment? A lot.
Throughout the U.S. and the world, black, brown, and native peoples often bear the brunt of environmental pollution. A disproportionate number of polluting sites (landfills, hazardous waste, incinerators, industry, busy roads, mines, etc.) are located in communities of color. When black lives are undervalued, society can treat these communities as sacrifice zones, and locate polluting sites in these areas. The racially unequal burden of environmental pollution is just one example of systemic racism.
People of color often have higher levels of many environmental chemicals, including endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), in their bodies than do whites. Lead in urban areas is perhaps the most obvious example, but there are many others, such as pesticides in Latinx farmworker communities, Louisiana’s petrochemical industry polluting the homes of African Americans living next door (“Cancer Alley”), and the export of hazardous waste (including our used electronics) from predominantly white countries to predominantly non-white countries around the globe. There are dozens, hundreds, thousands more examples.
Communities of color are also dealing with the added social stresses of racism, often poverty, job insecurity, police brutality, poorly funded social systems such as education and health care, and more. We know that chemical exposures interact with stress to increase the risk of disease.
It is no wonder, then, that people of color are also living with increased rates of disease and health disorders than do whites. Many of the diseases linked to EDC and other pollution exposures are also more common in communities of color, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, learning disabilities, cancer, and more. Black men, for example, have the highest cancer incidence rate of any group in the U.S. Blacks also have the highest death rate and lowest survival rate for cancer of any ethnic group in the U.S. (American Cancer Society, 2019). Unequal exposure to EDCs may contribute to racial disparities in type 2 diabetes as well, as several EDCs linked to type 2 diabetes are highest in minority communities (see the review by Ruiz et al. 2018, below).
So what do we do?
First we can start by raising awareness of environmental injustice. EDC scientists can increase research on health disparities and racial inequities. It is encouraging to see more and more research on environmental injustice already, but it is not enough. And just doing research is not enough. We can also advocate for equal treatment under the law, for healthy environments, and for reducing pollution and chemical exposures.
Then comes the hard part.
We need to dismantle the systemic racism that allows environmental injustice to continue. We need to clean up toxic chemicals from the environment for all people, and stop releasing them in the first place. We need to end the unjust siting of polluting areas in communities of color. We cannot have human sacrifice zones. We need an economic system that does not rely on polluting industries in the first place.
It is a tall order, but we need environmental justice.
Organizations
Many mainstream environmental organizations work on environmental justice issues. Here are some non-profits that focus on environmental justice– there are many more!
WE ACT for Environmental Justice (New York City)
Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice
Indigenous Environmental Network
Communities for a Better Environment (California)
Neighbors for Environmental Justice (Chicago)
Resources and Studies
From Environmental Health News: Compilation of news articles on environmental justice and Agents of Change: Amplifying Neglected Voices in Environmental Health
Anniston Community Health Survey
The Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) Study
Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health birth cohort
EPA’s Environmental Justice Research
American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans 2019-2021.
Peer-Reviewed Scientific Publications
This is just a selection. There are many more.
Di Renzo GC, Conry JA, Blake J, et al. International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics opinion on reproductive health impacts of exposure to toxic environmental chemicals. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2015;131(3):219‐225. doi:10.1016/j.ijgo.2015.09.002. Free full text.
Gaston SA, Birnbaum LS, Jackson CL. Synthetic Chemicals and Cardiometabolic Health Across the Life Course Among Vulnerable Populations: a Review of the Literature from 2018 to 2019. Curr Environ Health Rep. 2020;7(1):30‐47. doi:10.1007/s40572-020-00265-6.
James-Todd TM, Chiu YH, Zota AR. Racial/ethnic disparities in environmental endocrine disrupting chemicals and women’s reproductive health outcomes: epidemiological examples across the life course. Curr Epidemiol Rep. 2016;3(2):161‐180. doi:10.1007/s40471-016-0073-9. Free full text.
Manduca R, Sampson RJ. Punishing and toxic neighborhood environments independently predict the intergenerational social mobility of black and white children. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019;116(16):7772‐7777. doi:10.1073/pnas.1820464116. Free full text.
Ruiz D, Becerra M, Jagai JS, Ard K, Sargis RM. Disparities in Environmental Exposures to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals and Diabetes Risk in Vulnerable Populations. Diabetes Care. 2018;41(1):193‐205. doi:10.2337/dc16-2765. Free full text.
Williamson DHZ, Yu EX, Hunter CM, et al. A Scoping Review of Capacity-Building Efforts to Address Environmental Justice Concerns. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17(11):E3765. Published 2020 May 26. doi:10.3390/ijerph17113765. Free full text.
Zota AR, Shamasunder B. The environmental injustice of beauty: framing chemical exposures from beauty products as a health disparities concern. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2017;217(4):418.e1‐418.e6. doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2017.07.020. Free full text.