User:IACBU2/Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice Exposure Health Impacts
Environmental justice communities are disproportionately exposed to higher chemical pollution, reduced air quality, contaminated water sources, and overall reduced health1. A lack of acknowledgement and policy changes surrounding the exposures that impact the overall health of these communities leads to a decrease in both environmental and human health2. Environmental justice communities can be identified by various methods such as2:


 * threshold – geographic areas
 * community based identification
 * population weighting

While there are multiple ways to identify environmental justice communities, common environmental exposures in these environmental justice communities include, but are not limited to, air pollution hazards1. Due to a majority of environmental justice communities being of a lower socioeconomic status, many of the members of the communities work in crowded jobs with hazardous exposures such as warehouses and mines3. The main routes of exposure are through inhalation, absorption, and ingestion. When workers leave the work environment it is likely they take the chemicals with them on their clothing, shoes, skin, and hair3. The traveling of these chemicals can then reach their homes and further impact their families, including children3. The children of these communities have been described as a uniquely exposed population due to the way they metabolize and absorb contaminants differently than adults3. Compared to children in other communities, children in environmental justice communities may be exposed to a higher level of contaminants throughout the life course, beginning from utero (through the placenta), infancy (through breast milk), early childhood and beyond3 Because of the increased exposure they are at a greater risk for adverse health effects like respiratory conditions, gastrointestinal conditions, and mental conditions.

The placement of fracking sites and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in some of these areas are also large contributors to the adverse health effects experienced by members of these communities4. The CAFOs also release harmful gas emissions into the air (ammonia, volatile organic compounds, endotoxins, etc.) greatly reducing the surrounding air quality4. They can also pollute the soil and nearby water sources. Fracking sites can release toxic emissions, particularly methane, that also pollutes the air and contaminates the water5.