Agencies Announce Environmental Justice Index

On Aug. 10, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Environmental Justice, announced the release of the Environmental Justice Index (EJI) via a press release. The EJI aims to build off existing environmental justice indexes to create one environmental justice score for communities across the U.S., to assist public health officials in identifying and mapping areas most at risk for health impacts of environmental burden.

The release states that “It is the first national, geographic-driven tool designed to measure the cumulative impacts of environmental burden through the lenses of human health and health equity. Cumulative impacts are the total harm to human health that occurs from the combination of environmental burden such as pollution and poor environmental conditions, pre-existing health conditions, and social factors.”

Further, “An example of how pre-existing health conditions can be worsened by environmental burden would be two people with asthma. One person lives in a community with elevated air pollution, and the other person does not. While both people have asthma, the person living in the community with elevated air pollution may be more likely to be hospitalized based on having both factors.”

Uses of the EJI maps and databases include:

• Identifying areas that require special attention or more resources to improve health and health equity
• Educating the public about their community
• Analyzing local factors that drive cumulative impacts on health to assist with policy and decision-making
• Establishing goals and measuring progress toward environmental justice and health equity

“Environmental injustice can have profound negative effects on human health and well-being,” the release adds. “Addressing these negative effects is a key part of promoting health equity.”

CDC director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., was quoted in the release saying that “Addressing environmental injustice is critical to advancing health equity. While everyone is at some risk from the health impacts of environmental hazards, the communities that are most affected are often those that are already experiencing health inequities. CDC is taking action to address the adverse health effects associated with environmental injustice by identifying those most at risk with tools like the Environmental Justice Index.”