Understanding The Cumulative Impacts Of Inequalities In Environmental Health: Implications For Policy

Abstract

Racial or ethnic minority groups and low-income communities have poorer health outcomes than others. They are more frequently exposed to multiple environmental hazards and social stressors, including poverty, poor housing quality, and social inequality. Researchers are grappling with how best to characterize the cumulative effects of these hazards and stressors in order to help regulators and decision makers craft more-effective policies to address health and environmental disparities. In this article we synthesize the existing scientific evidence regarding the cumulative health implications of higher rates of exposure to environmental hazards, along with individual biological susceptibility and social vulnerability. We conclude that current environmental policy, which is focused narrowly on pollutants and their sources, should be broadened to take into account the cumulative impact of exposures and vulnerabilities encountered by people who live in neighborhoods consisting largely of racial or ethnic minorities or people of low socioeconomic status.

Cumulative Environmental Impacts: Science and Policy to Protect Communities

“…For instance, environmental exposures and social vulnerability can increase rates of health conditions, thereby heightening biological susceptibility to additional environmental exposures (40,76). One example is the association between poor housing quality and exposure to indoor antigens from cockroaches or mold, thereby increasing the risk of respiratory symptoms and in turn increasing host vulnerability to outdoor air pollutants such as ozone.…”

Impact of nitrogen and climate change interactions on ambient air pollution and human health

“…Cardiovascular disease, obesity, and type II diabetes are increasingly important in low-and middle-income countries as well; cardiovascular disease is now the leading the cause of death worldwide and the second leading cause of death in low-income countries (Narayan et al 2010;Reddy 2004;Yusuf et al 2001Yusuf et al , 2004. Vulnerability to the joint impacts of air pollutants and global climate change will reflect the non-uniform distribution of human exposures (Morello-Frosch et al 2011). Climate change is predicted to impact food availability, flooding, and drought, all of which may result in population movement to urban areas.…”

Philanthropy And Disparities: Progress, Challenges, And Unfinished Business

“…13 From birth to death, race and class have an effect on rates of disease risk, exposure to environmental hazards and socioeconomic stressors, and access to health necessities such as healthy food and safe housing. Studies are beginning to document the pathways through which genetics and everyday environments and behaviors interact to shape health.…”

“…15 Numerous other studies are finding that people who experience multiple stressors and exposures tend to have poorer health outcomes than the general population. 13 Foundations concerned about populations with the poorest health outcomes thus face a complex array of forces that lie inside and outside health care settings. These considerations have led some funders to reexamine their disparities strategies and have attracted other funders, especially those already oriented toward prevention and popula-tion health, into the disparities field.…”