Environmental health and Hispanic children

Abstract

There are numerous indicators that Hispanics face a disproportionate risk of exposure to environmental hazards. Ambient air pollution, worker exposure to chemicals, indoor air pollution, and drinking water quality are among the top four threats to human health and are all areas in which indicators point to elevated risk for Hispanic populations. These data, juxtaposed with data on the health status of Hispanics, tell us that the environmental health status of Hispanics and their children is poor. At the same time, significant inadequacies in the collection of data on Hispanics make it difficult to make improving Hispanic environmental health status a priority. These inadequacies include the failure to use Hispanic identifiers in data collection and failure to collect sample sizes large enough to allow for breakouts of data by Hispanic subgroup. In addressing environmental justice issues, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) should prioritize improving the quantifiability of environmental exposures and risk based on race or ethnicity. However, improving data should not be the prerequisite to significant, affirmative steps by DHHS and U.S. EPA to address environmental and environmental health problems facing Hispanic communities. In particular, a health-based approach to environmental justice should be the priority.