Environmental justice and the health of children

Abstract

Environmental injustice is the inequitable and disproportionately heavy exposure of poor, minority, and disenfranchised populations to toxic chemicals and other environmental hazards. Environmental injustice contributes to disparities in health status across populations of differing ethnicity, race, and socioeconomic status. Infants and children, because of their unique biological vulnerabilities and age-related patterns of exposure, are especially vulnerable to the health impacts of environmental injustice. These impacts are illustrated by sharp disparities across children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds in the prevalence of 3 common diseases caused in part by environmental factors: asthma, lead poisoning, and obesity. Documentation of linkages between health disparities and environmental injustice is an important step toward achieving environmental justice.

Fig 1

Conquest of pestilence in New York City. Abbreviations: HIV, human immunodeficiency virus; WTC, World Trade Center.

Fig 2

Number of children with confirmed BLLs by racial or ethnic groups and program-relevant BLL groups: selected US states, 2001. Abbreviation: BLL, blood lead level.