Advancing Environmental Justice through Community-Based Participatory Research

139 For the last several decades, a global environmental justice movement has challenged the disproportionate burden that environmental degradation and pollution have had on the health and well-being of communities of color and low-income communities. The struggle for environmental justice by people of color, who bear the brunt of pollution in the United States and around the world, has escalated with a growing awareness that this disproportionate burden contributes to egre-gious disparities in health by race/ethnicity and social class. The early environmental justice efforts of the 1980s brought forth the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held in Washington, DC, 24–27 October 1991. This landmark summit was attended by over 900 persons; 350 of the delegates were people of color. Upon jointly developing 17 Principles of Environmental Justice, the delegates returned home with a mandate to organize for change at the grassroots level. In February 1994, in response to these advocacy efforts, President William Clinton issued Executive Order 12898 (1), which charged 11 federal agencies with developing policies and procedures to address the disparate impact of environmental hazards on communities of color and low-income populations. On that same day, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) hosted an Interagency Symposium On Health Research Needs to Ensure Environmental Justice in Arlington, Virginia. The NIEHS symposium was attended by over 1,100 persons , 400 of whom were environmental justice advocates. This momentous dialogue resulted in an expressed appreciation of the importance of community involvement in setting and implementing research agendas to address environmental justice issues. The scientific community acknowledged that increased attention and funding were needed to effectively respond to egregious health disparities by race/ethnicity and social class, the disproportionate burden of pollution across communities, the impacts of multiple and cumulative exposures—including the potential for synergistic effects—and the special concerns of susceptible populations, including children, the immuno-compromised, and the aged. Scientists and community leaders agreed to work in partnership to prioritize research needs, gather data, assess environmental exposures, and test interventions to influence public policy in order to protect the environment and the health of all, including those living in communities of color and places that are economically exploited. Over the last several years, communities throughout the United States and around the world have made progress in effectively addressing their expressed environmental justice concerns. Government agencies and private foundations have funded commu-nity–university partnerships to conduct community based participatory research …