ATSDR - Office of Urban Affairs - Environmental Justice

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

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Preventing adverse health effects and environmental injustices in minority populations and low-income populations exposed to hazardous substances is a priority for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)

ATSDR established a Minority Health Initiative in 1987 that focused on the demographic characteristics, health perspectives, health communication patterns, and health professional and community health education needs of disadvantaged and persons of color communities. This effort has evolved into the Agency's Minority Health/Environmental Justice Program, which has four goals:

Demographics: To develop a comprehensive demographic profile of communities living near hazardous waste sites and other sources of hazardous substances.
Health Studies and Applied Research: To determine the relationship between identified adverse human health outcomes and hazardous substances in disadvantaged communities and persons of color.
Community Involvement and Risk Communication: To develop and execute environmental risk communication and education programs to mitigate and prevent adverse health effects from hazardous substances in disadvantaged communities and people of color.
Training and Education: To increase the numbers and racial and ethnic diversity of persons in professional disciplines encompassing environmental public health. This includes assisting with curriculum development in academic institutions, faculty support through research projects, seminars and workshops in toxicology and other disciplines, and short-term training for professionals in disciplines related to identifying and preventing environmental hazards.

ATSDR is committed, as part of its Minority Health Program, to addressing environmental justice issues. This commitment was prompted in part by Presidential Executive Order No. 12898 (Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-income Populations), which states in part:

"...each Federal agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations...."

ATSDR intends for its Minority Health Program to be responsive to the Executive Order.

Executive Order of the President on Environmental Justice

EPA's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC)

EPA's Environmental Justice Home Page

Environmental Justice Resource Center (EJRC), Clark Atlanta University

OUA Staff

This page was last updated on May 23, 2001.
Paco Tomei / FTomei-Torres@cdc.gov