Racism as a public health issue in environmental health disparities and environmental justice: working toward solutions.

Background: Environmental health research in the US has shown that racial and ethnic minorities and members of low-socioeconomic groups, are disproportionately burdened by harmful environmental exposures, in their homes, workplace, and neighborhood environments that impact their overall health and well-being. Systemic racism is a fundamental cause of these disproportionate exposures and associated health effects. To invigorate and inform current efforts on environmental justice and to raise awareness of environmental racism, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) hosted a workshop where community leaders, academic researchers, and NIEHS staff shared perspectives and discussed ways to inform future work to address health disparities.

Government Program Celebrates 25 Years of Commitment to Environmental Justice Movement.

For over 25 years, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Environmental Career Worker Training Program (ECWTP) has advanced principles of environmental justice by funding nonprofit organizations, or grantees, to deliver health, safety, and job training for individuals from disadvantaged communities. This article provides a brief background of the environmental justice movement and examines the efforts of grantees to demonstrate how the ECWTP model can serve as a pathway for advancing environmental justice in disadvantaged and underserved communities.

Promoting integrated approaches to reducing health inequities among low-income workers: applying a social ecological framework.

Background: Nearly one of every three workers in the United States is low-income. Low-income populations have a lower life expectancy and greater rates of chronic diseases compared to those with higher incomes. Low- income workers face hazards in their workplaces as well as in their communities.

Ensuring that green jobs are good jobs.

A priority of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' (NIEHS's) Worker Education and Training Program (WETP) is to make sure that green jobs are good jobs: they must be safe jobs and must include strong safety training programs. The Laborers AGC Education and Training Fund (LAGC) of the Laborers International Union of North America has been a grantee of the WETP for years and has developed hands-on, peer-focused, state-of-the-art health and safety training for laborers in the environmental remediation field. NIEHS has worked with union President Terence O'Sullivan and the LAGC to train workers engaged in freeing our communities from the extensive legacy of industrial pollution.