Blog #8

Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism

Environmental justice and environmental racism are new terms for me.  I have seen environmental injustices around the cities I have lived in or have visited but I never put the term to use or even entertained the idea as 'racism' or 'injustice', I have always just thought of the people who live in these areas are poor and have no other choice to live.  It has never occurred to me how and where developers use land for use in industries that pollute by noise, particulate matter from motor vehicles or heavy machinery, strip the use of water resources and reduce the green space of the neighborhoods affected.  Land use does define a certain population or race made up of people of color and people of lower educational and socioeconomic statuses.  These people, according to the readings and videos burden the nation's pollution problem and toxic waste sites, rendering adverse health effects and health outcomes.  If this is the case, then it is policy making that is discriminatory, deliberately targeting communities of color.

I have not encountered any environmental events in my community, but now that I am more aware of the social injustice and environmental issues, I will have to pay more attention to this.

The social determinants of health is influenced by environmental health.  Among migrant farmers for example, who work in soil disturbing activities, live in close proximity and work in soil and dust, so when I think about the social determinants affecting a population in my DNP project, I do think about environmental justice.  I my clinic I do ask about occupational, recreational and domestic exposure to dust and soil as part of my social determinant assessment.