Environmental Justice: Healthy Children, Healthy Communities, and a Healthy Mother Earth
Background on Environmental Justice
In 1990, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that the top environmental threats to human health are outdoor pollution, worker exposure to chemicals in industry and agriculture, indoor pollution, and contaminated water. A year later, the EPA found that racial and ethnic minorities were disproportionately located near hazardous facilities and also suffered disproportionate exposures to lead. The
EPA reports, confirmed a 1987 study conducted by the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice that there was a strong link between race, class, and the siting of dirty and polluting industries and processes. These reports along with community organizing led President Bill Clinton to sign Executive Order 12898, “Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-income Populations” on February 11, 1994. The order directed the EPA and other federal agencies to develop environmental justice strategies to address disproportionately high and adverse human health or environment effects of their programs on minority and low-income populations. Pollution is impacting our air, water, soil, the health of our families and the traditional lifestyles of many New Mexicans. Pollution is contributing to high rates of health disparities and chronic disease in New Mexico.
To address issues of environmental racism, communities began to challenge preservation and conservation approaches of national environmental organizations. In particular in New Mexico where there have been instances where communities have been at odds with national environmental organizations who, in the past, tend to advocate for policies and programs which may not be in the best interests of the community when it comes to job opportunities, grazing rights, land and water rights or just the simple fact of not being inclusive of community voices and expertise. Communities began to redefine the environment, by organizing for environmental justice where we live, work, play, pray, and go to school. Environmental justice communities are advocating for protection from disproportionate siting and exposure to toxin emitting industries, cumulative impacts of pollution, and health disparities exacerbated by pollution in people of color and low-income communities.
Areas of Concern
While health in the United States has improved overall, minorities and low-income communities suffer high rates of mortality and illness from asthma, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and a range of other diseases. For example, asthma has become the most common chronic disease amongst children. Asthma rates in minority children overall are doubling every ten years. In 2002, 7 out of 10 Hispanics lived in counties that violated federal air pollution standards. Air pollution is one of the major triggers for asthma attacks. In a report entitled The State of Air 2007 , the American Lung Association stated, old coal-fired power plants are among the biggest industrial contributors to unhealthy air. The study also flagged that air pollution is especially dangerous for children because their lungs are growing and because they are so active. In 2004, the World Health Organization concluded that air pollution caused multiple harmful effects on children:
• Short-term and long-term decreased lung function and caused lower lung function levels, these are critical measures of how well a child will breathe throughout his or her life.
• Aggravation of asthma.
• Increased prevalence and incidence of cough and bronchitis.
Water quantity and water rights have played and continue to be of significant importance to communities in New Mexico. Of growing concern is the quality of our water. In 1981, Los Alamos National Laboratory reported that between 1943 and 1964 over 166 million gallons of treated and untreated radioactive wastewater was released into the pueblo canyon system. In May of 2000, the Cerro Grande fire burned 7,500 acres of LANL property. Contaminated soil and ash were washed downstream. A rainstorm in 2002 released more plutonium into the environment than had ever been recorded by the lab.
In New Mexico, there are fish advisories for 26 of 36 water bodies. These advisories have been made because mercury and other toxins have been found in some fish at concentrations that could impact human health. Power Plants emit 41% of the nations total mercury emissions. Coal-fired power plants are the largest unregulated industrial source of mercury. Power plant emissions of mercury contaminate fish, posing a major health threat to Native American Hispanic communities.
As our water and air has been polluted, and workers exposed to toxins we are witnessing alarming rates of cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. Native Americans have the highest prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in the world. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in children. Brain cancer, amongst children, has increased by almost 40% from 1973 to 1994.
Future Generations
As we have been handed down this land from our ancestors it is our responsibility to protect our environment and the health of our families and future generations; the air that we breathe, the water and soil which sustains our families, communities, land, and wildlife. We have a responsibility to protect Mother Earth and all her resources while maintaining a healthy work environment and a sustainable economy. We have the ability to improve the health of all New Mexicans and prevent the threat of climate change.
• New Mexico Environmental Justice Policy Committee 2005
• New Mexico Executive Order of Environmental Justice (2005) File size: 36k
• Governor's Taskforce on Environmental Justice 2005
• Participated, in the revising of the Solid Waste Regulations and Management Plan 2007 along with other EJ organizations.
• House Memorial 97 passed in 2007 requiring NMED to study how to address the cumulative, economic and social impacts of its decisions on the quality of life of New Mexico residents. Follow-up work is being conducted with the New Mexico Environment Department. File size: 44k
• Held the Third Annual Environmental Justice Awareness Day at the New Mexico state capitol in Santa Fe.
* Coordinated a meeting with the New Mexico Department of Health, the New Mexico Environment Department, and the New Mexico EJ Working Group to discuss environmental justice and how to address health concerns and disparities due to toxic environmental exposure.
Solutions
• Review and continue to address and implement the recommendations made during the statewide Listening Session on EJ.
• Improving and strengthening early and meaningful public participation and notification
• Incorporation of environmental justice provisions and precautionary principle approaches into all environmental regulations and ordinances.
• Building collaborations between environmental justice, environmental and conservation groups, industry, and government.
• NMED and NMDOH working together to address public health impacts related to environmental toxins.
• Provide continued funding for a State Interagency Taskforce on EJ.
• Provide more funding to NMED and other agencies for enforcement and training for emergency response and evacuation plans.
• During the permit process require community impact assessment reports looking at present and future cumulative impacts that pose a threat to public health, environment, or traditional and sustainable values of a community.
• Work with tribal and native grassroots organizations to develop mutually acceptable solutions to support environmental and health studies and clean alternatives for economic development that address past, present, and future concerns.
The New Mexico EJ Working Group is a project of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, current members include the Colonias Development Council, Concerned Citizens of Wagon Mound and Mora County, Kalpulli Izkalli, SAGE Council and technical assistance provided by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, the Southwest Research Institute Center, and other technical assistance providers.
Protecting Public Health and not just Corporate Wealth
Keating, Martha. Air of Injustice: How Air Pollution Affects the Health of Hispanics and Latinos . League of United Latin American Citizens, Washington D.C., 2004, p. 8.
Boldt, Deborah and Cacari Stone, Lisa. Closing the Health Disparity Gap in New Mexico: A Roadmap for Grantmaking . Con Alma Health Foundation, New Mexico, May 2006, p.6.
Keating, Martha. Air of Injustice: How Air Pollution Affects the Health of Hispanics and Latinos . League of United Latin American Citizens, Washington D.C., 2004, p. 11.
Berlik, Mary, Bernstein, Aaron, Chivian, Eric, Epstein, Paul, and McCally, Michael. Protecting Health, Preserving the Environment and Propelling the Economy: An Environmental Health Briefing Book . Physicians for Social Responsibility, Washington D.C., October 2006, pgs. 22-23.
Keating, Martha. Air of Injustice: How Air Pollution Affects the Health of Hispanics and Latinos . League of United Latin American Citizens, Washington D.C., 2004, p. 3.
American Lung Association. State of the Air 2007 . http://lungaction.org/reports/spta07exec_summ.html.
NMED and UNM. Video, Water Warning: It's Not Just the Drought . 2004.
Ibid
Ibid
NMED Fish Advisories 2006 – 2007.
Ibid
Keating, Martha. Air of Injustice: How Air Pollution Affects the Health of Hispanics and Latinos . League of United Latin American Citizens, Washington D.C., 2004, p. 14.
Ibid
Boldt, Deborah and Cacari Stone, Lisa. Closing the Health Disparity Gap in New Mexico: A Roadmap for Grantmaking . Con Alma Health Foundation, New Mexico, May 2006, p.14.
Berlik, Mary, Bernstein, Aaron, Chivian, Eric, Epstein, Paul, and McCally, Michael. Protecting Health, Preserving the Environment and Propelling the Economy: An Environmental Health Briefing Book . Physicians for Social Responsibility, Washington D.C., October 2006, pgs. 22-23.
Ibid
For more information on state initiatives please contact Bianca Encinias.
