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Biden's massive plan for environmental justice was blocked, but his commitment hasn't faltered [1]
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Date: 2022-09-03
x Public health officials, scientists, and researchers can use the new Environmental Justice Index (EJI) to identify and map areas most at risk for the health impacts of environmental burden. Learn more about the EJI:
https://t.co/FwTcIlVkeI. pic.twitter.com/nNs78zSQgl — CDC (@CDCgov) August 30, 2022
Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Environmental Justice, released the new Environmental Justice Index (EJI), a tool for mapping the areas of great public health risk because of environmental conditions.
The EJI scores communities with a “single environmental justice score” and measures the impact of the environment on community health. It’s the first national “geographic-driven tool designed to measure the cumulative impacts of environmental burden through the lenses of human health and health equity,” the CDC said in announcing it. The tool drills down to census tracts within individual counties, and ranks each tract on 36 environmental, social, and health factors, grouping them into three overarching modules and 10 different domains. That will help local, state, and federal public health officials respond to environmental public health crises.
“Too many communities across our nation, particularly low-income communities and communities of color, continue to bear the brunt of pollution. Meeting the needs of these communities requires our focused attention and we will use the Environmental Justice Index to do just that,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
“Addressing environmental injustice is critical to advancing health equity,” said CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky. “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.”
“Everyone deserves to live, learn, and work in a healthy environment, and this new tool builds on existing environmental screening tools,” said Patrick Breysse, director of ATSDR and CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. “The Environmental Justice Index strengthens the scientific evidence on the cumulative health impacts of environmental burden on communities across the country.”
Specifically, the EJI databases and maps can be used to: identify areas that may require special attention or additional resources to improve health and health equity,
educate and inform the public about their community,
analyze the unique, local factors driving cumulative impacts on health to inform policy and decision-making, and
establish meaningful goals and measure progress towards environmental justice and health equity.
It should work to inform decision-makers on where resources available through the IIJA, IRA and other federal programs are best spent—and also in rule-making for how that money should be spent.
President Biden didn’t get the massive $4 to $6 trillion bill passed that he envisioned, the one that would have tackled so many of the nation’s crises at once. But that doesn’t mean he and his administration have abandoned the goals that drove his plan. It just has to be done in pieces.
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