Cancer, the environment, and environmental justice

Abstract

In summary, during this session of the 6th Biennial Symposium on Cancer, Minorities and the Medically Underserved, powerful presentations were made on the inequities of the implementation of environmental justice. Speakers presented evidence that the location of toxic waste-treatment facilities, hazardous land fills, and toxicant dumping seem to be placed strategically and systematically in or near communities of people of color or those who are economically challenged. The victims of such environmental injustices are invariably the people who are most vulnerable to these exposures and are least able to deal effectively with the consequences of the exposures. Also, these presentations emphasized the irrefutable links between environment and health. Multiple incidences of cancer as well as other pathologic conditions in close proximity to areas of chronic environmental exposures were cited. However, these presentations also provided information about the coalescing of grassroots community environmental protection groups that, by their activism and vigilance, have brought these issues to national prominence. The struggles of these impacted communities have brought them together and increased their own awareness of the scope of the problems faced by communities across the nation that fit the profile for neighborhoods that are targeted consistently for disproportionate environmental burdens. These organizations are directly responsible for Executive Order 12898, which mandates that all federal agencies implement strategies to incorporate environmental justice into all fabrics of American society. The NIEHS Environmental Justice Communications grants provide a model for positive interaction between community environmental protection groups, health care providers, environmental health researchers, and federal agencies. This healthy partnership promotes opportunities for communities to have an impact on research study design and to make the goals of the research have a real impact on public health. Moreover, the bold new directions in environmental health research being instituted by the NIEHS bear the promise of encouraging translational research that will improve the health status of communities that are in sore need of the remediation to be supplied by the implementation of environmental justice principles.