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Review
. 2024 Sep-Oct;24(7S):S167-S172.
doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2023.09.016.

Environmental Racism and Child Health

M Teresa Herrera  1 , Blean Girma  2 , Akhgar Ghassabian  3 , Leonardo Trasande  4
Affiliations
Review

Environmental Racism and Child Health

M Teresa Herrera et al. Acad Pediatr. 2024 Sep-Oct.

Abstract

Environmental racism poses a significant threat to child health. It is a major contributor to disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards that are linked to adverse health outcomes. This narrative review shows the profound impact that environmental racism poses to healthy child development through 3 examples. Historical redlining provides compelling evidence of how historical policies continue to influence neighborhoods' physical and social conditions. Exploring chemicals in beauty products reveals how anti-Black perceptions of beauty work to expose children of color to endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Finally, by exploring childhood lead exposure, we see how decades of inequitable implementation of lead exposure prevention policies contribute to persistent disparities in the United States today. Fixing these structural issues is complex and will require political will and investment. Yet, individual clinicians play an important role in their local communities in protecting children from the harms of environmental racism, through education, genuine collaboration with the community, and advocacy.

Keywords: child health; environment; equity; pediatric; racism.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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