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Naomi E. Ervin, PhD, RN, FAAN, College of Nursing, Wayne State University, 5557 Cass Avenue, Room 242 Cohn Building, Detroit, MI 48202, 313-577-5137, n.ervin@wayne.edu and Sue Ellen Bell, PhD, RN, School of Nursing, Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2133 Fairmount Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105.
This presentation focuses on the ethical issues faced by public health nurses in dealing with the results of an unclean environment. According to Sharp (2003), the health effects of the environment where people live and work are connected with concerns about the environment, but also disparities in power and privilege that put the underserved in communities at a disadvantage. What gets studied, where the study occurs, and what results from the study are ethical issues. Although not yet conclusive, data point to disproportionately higher levels of exposure to environmental hazards and stressors in minority and low-income communities than in the general population (Institute of Medicine, 1999). The environmental health ethics literature in recent years has contained articles about the precautionary principle (PP) (Marchant, 2003). Unfortunately, PP is not specific enough to provide criteria for how to handle environmental threats to health in the face of interest groups and politics. Thus, this “better safe than sorry” philosophy is applied unevenly and too often in line with corporate interests as a way of risk management at the expense of the poor and underserved. This is one way in which environmental injustices can continue to be perpetrated on the poor of the world. For nurses the dilemma is one of how to use the knowledge about the environment to assist families and communities to avoid the damage done by an unclean environment. A summary of actions to increase the influence of public health nursing on solutions to environmental problems will be presented.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Environmental Justice, Ethics
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.