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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Max Weintraub, MS, Toxics Section, US Environmental Protection Agency, 75 Hawthorne Street, Mail Code CMD-4-2, San Francisco, CA 94105, 415-947-4163, weintraub.max@epa.gov
Environmental disease has been documented to disproportionately harm low-income communities of color. The Environmental Justice &Health Union is focused on bringing together environmental health professionals and environmental justice activists in order to 1) better understand why such disparities exist and 2) to create a common language to discuss and develop solutions to the problem. The need for such a union is substantial. Disparities continue to exist despite the efforts of environmental health professionals and environmental justice activists. Such efforts are compromised by a limited ability to communicate as environmental justice activists tend to focus on moral issues raised by such disparities and environmental health professionals tend to focus on scientific and policy issues. Explicitly recognizing such differences, and identifying common ground, is a critical first step to enabling both groups to come together and reconsider what solutions exist to the disproportionate threat of environmental illness in low-income communities of color. The Environmental Justice & Health Union serves as a forum for such activities by outlining the recent history of environmental health and environmental justice movements, providing access to seminal environmental health and environmental justice materials, regularly distributing information about partnership and funding opportunities that encompass both groups, and identifying success stories.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Environmental Justice, Environmental Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Environmental Justice & Health Union
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: I am the founder of the project.