Symposium on the Science of Disproportionate Environmental Health Impacts

Background

Chief James Ransom speaks at the opening plenary session

EPA held a science symposium on March 17-19, 2010 to examine factors that help explain why some populations, particularly minority, low income, and tribal populations, are exposed to greater environmental pollution. The Symposium also focused on why some populations experience greater environmental health risks from environmental pollution. Discussions at the Symposium also focused on how this knowledge can be considered in the governmental decision-making process.

Following the Symposium, fourteen scientific reviews commissioned by the EPA were completed and are now published in the American Journal of Public Health. EPA also developed an update report (PDF) (73 pp, 1.69MB) to highlight ongoing and future actions by the agency in response to suggestions by Symposium participants and environmental justice advocates. These actions help to:

• empower communities to take action to improve their health and environment,
• increase interagency collaboration on environmental justice,
• advance scientific understanding of environmental justice issues, and
• better integrate environmental justice into the EPA’s decision making processes.

Read more about the Symposium

Commissioned Papers:

1. Symposium on Integrating the Science of Environmental Justice into Decision-Making at the Environmental Protection Agency: An Overview
2. Expanding the Scope of Environmental Risk Assessment to Better Include Differential Vulnerability and Susceptibility
3. Exploring Potential Sources of Differential Vulnerability and Susceptibility in Risk From Environmental Hazards to Expand the Scope of Risk Assessment
4. Expanding the Scope of Risk Assessment: Methods of Studying Differential Vulnerability and Susceptibility
5. Residential Proximity to Environmental Hazards and Adverse Health Outcomes
6. Disproportionate Proximity to Environmental Health Hazards: Methods, Models, and Measurement
7. Cumulative Risk Assessment for Combined Health Effects From Chemical and Nonchemical Stressors
8. Conceptual Models for Cumulative Risk Assessment
9. Critical Biological Pathways for Chronic Psychosocial Stress and Research Opportunities to Advance the Consideration of Stress in Chemical Risk Assessment
10. Strengthening Community Capacity to Participate in Making Decisions to Reduce Disproportionate Environmental Exposures
11. Community Stress, Psychosocial Hazards and EPA Decision-Making in Communities Impacted by Chronic Technological Disasters
12. Drinking Water Infrastructure and Environmental Disparities: Evidence and Methodological Considerations
13. Environmental Health Disparities in Housing
14. Conceptual Environmental Justice Model for Evaluating Chemical Pathways of Exposure in Low-Income, Minority, Native American, and Other Unique Exposure Populations
15. Disproportionate Exposures in Environmental Justice and Other Populations: The Importance of Outliers