Sources
Tom Conry, Chemical of the Month: Lead, Exposure no. 13 (December 1981):
Commission for Racial Justice, United Church of Christ, Toxic Waste and Race in the United States (New York: Public Data Access, 1987)
Robert Bullard et al., We Speak for Ourselves: Social Justice, Race and Environment (Washington, D.C.: Panos Institute, 1990).
Context:
Because of the vast spread of environmental hazards it i virtually impossible to steer clear of them. These chemicals are called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). This chemicals were used in things people come across everyday such as: adhesives, paints, electric insulators, and printing inks etc, and they can lead to skin discoloration, liver problems, cancer, and developmental hindrances in children and adolescents.
One's class or rank in society often determine to what degree one can protect themselves from environmental health hazards. There are people who can manage buying bottled water or organic food, better health benefits, some can even migrate away from the nuclear power plants and the chemical wastes dumps. Others simply cant afford it. Statistics show that people of color (any color), are more likely than European Americans, to work more precarious jobs, to inhabit areas that are closest to environmental hazards, and are known to occupy substandard housing. Women of color therefore have a higher risk of accumulating pollutants than white women.
Neighborhoods of color and, lesser, poor white communities face a higher risk of being susceptible to hazardous chemicals, but also suffer from a greater disregard by government organizations. The Commission for Racial Justice (United Church of Christ) discovered that three of the five largest commercial hazardous-waste dumps in the United States are located in predominately black or Latino communities. Here is an even more shocking statistic: "three of five blacks and Latinos live in communities with uncontrolled toxic-waste sites; and about half of all Asians/Pacific Islanders and Native Americans live near uncontrolled waste sites.
These toxic problems aren't just an urban issue. Backwood or (rural) people face massive exposure to pesticides and herbicides, especially since agribusiness (the businesses collectively associated with the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products) gained almost total control of food production. There is approximately 3 million farmers in the U.S., majority are Latino, and 1/4 (25%) percent are Female. Many of the women who work on these farm have neglected health problems, and the country women and children who live close to farms are exposed to similar conditions.
One's class or rank in society often determine to what degree one can protect themselves from environmental health hazards. There are people who can manage buying bottled water or organic food, better health benefits, some can even migrate away from the nuclear power plants and the chemical wastes dumps. Others simply cant afford it. Statistics show that people of color (any color), are more likely than European Americans, to work more precarious jobs, to inhabit areas that are closest to environmental hazards, and are known to occupy substandard housing. Women of color therefore have a higher risk of accumulating pollutants than white women.
Neighborhoods of color and, lesser, poor white communities face a higher risk of being susceptible to hazardous chemicals, but also suffer from a greater disregard by government organizations. The Commission for Racial Justice (United Church of Christ) discovered that three of the five largest commercial hazardous-waste dumps in the United States are located in predominately black or Latino communities. Here is an even more shocking statistic: "three of five blacks and Latinos live in communities with uncontrolled toxic-waste sites; and about half of all Asians/Pacific Islanders and Native Americans live near uncontrolled waste sites.
These toxic problems aren't just an urban issue. Backwood or (rural) people face massive exposure to pesticides and herbicides, especially since agribusiness (the businesses collectively associated with the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products) gained almost total control of food production. There is approximately 3 million farmers in the U.S., majority are Latino, and 1/4 (25%) percent are Female. Many of the women who work on these farm have neglected health problems, and the country women and children who live close to farms are exposed to similar conditions.
There are many people who live in low-leveled radiation ares. Many Native Americans fall into this category because of the uranium mining that have engulf much of the reservation land. There even some businesses that have the intentions of using Native land for dumping toxic waste, including sites for radioactive waste from military uses and nuclear power plants.
"Gender, racial, ethnic, and class discrimination intersects with workplace and environmental conditions so that health hazards are borne unequally by people with low incomes and people of color. The movement to right such wrongs is called the environmental justice movement." (Boston Women's Health Book Collective.)
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