With Earth Day coming up, the month of April is a good opportunity to think about Environmental Justice and its impact on health.
Environmental Justice Resources for April
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s brought attention to the inequities of environmental protection, especially in communities of color, and the associated public health dangers. This was the beginning of the Environmental Justice Timeline which led to sit-ins, protests, and the creation of organizations which worked to improve environmental and health quality.
In its definition of Environmental Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), states that environmental justice will be achieved when “everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.”
Learn more about environmental health and environment justice by browsing journals and books on this topic in Lane Library’s catalog, including the recently added ebook, Planetary health: protecting nature to protect ourselves.
Explore the Health and Environmental Research Online (HERO) database which contains scientific studies, data, and other references that are used by the EPA to develop their risk assessments in understanding the environmental and health effects of chemicals and pollutants. The National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP), the EPA’s central repository and distribution center for their publications, provides over 5,000 current EPA publications to the public at no charge. Another EPA resource to explore is EJScreen, which provides users with demographic and environmental information on a chosen geographical area.
Dig deeper with GreenFILE, a research database containing a collection of scholarly, government, and general-interest titles covering “all aspects of human impact to the environment.” The collection not only covers the impact that individuals, corporations, and governments have on the environment, but also what can be done to minimize negative impact and covers the topics of global warming, green building, pollution, renewable energy, and more.
We hope this collection of resources guides your exploration of environmental justice and health research. If you need help using these resources or developing a search strategy for a specific environmental topic, please contact us.
