Environmental health and Hispanic children.

Abstract

There are numerous indicators that Hispanics face a disproportionate risk of exposure to environmental hazards. Ambient air pollution, worker exposure to chemicals, indoor air pollution, and drinking water quality are among the top four threats to human health and are all areas in which indicators point to elevated risk for Hispanic populations. These data, juxtaposed with data on the health status of Hispanics, tell us that the environmental health status of Hispanics and their children is poor. At the same time, significant inadequacies in the collection of data on Hispanics make it difficult to make improving Hispanic environmental health status a priority. These inadequacies include the failure to use Hispanic identifiers in data collection and failure to collect sample sizes large enough to allow for breakouts of data by Hispanic subgroup. In addressing environmental justice issues, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) should prioritize improving the quantifiability of environmental exposures and risk based on race or ethnicity. However, improving data should not be the prerequisite to significant, affirmative steps by DHHS and U.S. EPA to address environmental and environmental health problems facing Hispanic communities. In particular, a health-based approach to environmental justice should be the priority.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Executive Order 12898: Environmental Justice for All?

“…The research that does exist on the Hispanic population as a whole indicates this population typically suffers from poor air quality, pesticides, dump sites, and contaminated drinking water (Nieves and Wernette 1992). Metzger, Delgado, and Herrell (1995) determine that the environmental health status of Hispanics and their children is poor. Hispanic populations have an elevated chance of health risks caused by worker exposure to chemicals and to indoor and outdoor pollution.…”

“…The authors point out that significant inadequacies in the collection of data on Hispanics-especially ascertaining large enough data samples-make it difficult to improve Hispanic environmental health status. They charge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with addressing these environmental problems and use a healthbased approach to reach environmental justice (Metzger, Delgado, and Herrell 1995).…”

Latino child health: need for inclusion in the US national discourse

“…21,43,[63][64][65] Latino adolescents are more likely to use drugs, alcohol, and tobacco 21,43,66 ; less likely to use contraceptives 67,68 ; more likely to be injured 21,43,66 ; and more likely to attempt suicide thanAfricanAmerican and non-Hispanic White adolescents.…”

“…4,5,13,14,[118][119][120][121] Current federal and state data systems are also limited in terms of Latino child health indicators. 64 A systematic review of approximately 200 studies on Latino children revealed several methodologic limitations: more than 60% of the studies did not report a method of ethnic identification; most reported data for Hispanics as an overall group; and almost half did not report an indicator for socioeconomic status. Also, because more than 50% of the studies involved secondary data, there was often an absence of relevant medical and nonmedical factors to explain the findings.…”

“…Although significant progress has been made in data collection, problems persist in the measurement and quality of data collected. To ensure the development of more comprehensive baseline indicators and the monitoring and surveillance of health indicators for Latinos, public health data systems must be improved through collection of minimal core information on racial/ethnic subgroups, place of birth, education, and Englishlanguage proficiency levels; administration of surveys in Spanish to ensure representation and inclusion of Latinos who have difficulty with English; and reporting of national and state data for at least 3 major Latino subgroups, 4,5,6,[12][13][14]26,40,64,119,135,136 These data can yield community-specific baseline indicators. In 1998, the National Center for Health Statistics began the administration of Spanishlanguage instruments for the National Health Interview Survey; bilingual instruments should routinely be used in public health data collection procedures.…”