EPA Research: Understanding and Mitigating Environmental Health Disparities and Risks
EPA researchers are working to help communities with majority populations of people of color, low-income residents, or indigenous peoples reduce the adverse health impacts associated with their experiences with higher exposures to environmental hazards, such as cardiovascular disease, asthma, and preterm and/or low birth weight.
The work focuses on developing a better understanding of how social determinants of health (the conditions in which people live), together with poor environmental quality, can contribute to inequities in health and well-being.
The goal is to provide data, tools, and other resources that help EPA and its partners improve health and well-being to every community—harnessing science to bring the benefits and opportunities of environmental protection to everyone, regardless of their income, location, or ethnicity.
The research portfolio is strategically organized to answer key questions (see sidebar) in the three key areas outlined below.
1. Linking Environmental and Social Stressors
Researchers are advancing the understanding of the interactions among biological, social, spatial, and environmental factors, and how they contribute to disproportionate risk. They are employing both laboratory- and community-based studies to evaluate the extent to which these various factors contribute to disproportionate risks and health disparities in overburdened communities.
This work includes exploring the environmental legacy of past industrial and land use practices, how they have increased contamination risks in vulnerable communities, and how to help those communities identify and mitigate such risks.
Results of this ongoing work to date include:
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The development of an Equitable Resilience Builder, a social science-informed tool and process designed to help communities measure their resilience and vulnerability and identify actions to build resilience centered on equity.
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Studies exploring associations between the built environment and epigenetic biomarkers of aging and mortality risk in an urban, majority Black population of Detroit, MI. For more information , see:
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Ward-Caviness, C., C. Martin, A. Aiello, E. Hauser, AND W. Kraus. Epigenetic Predictors of Mortality and Neighborhood Disadvantage. International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, NYC, NY, August 23 - 26, 2021.
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2. Cumulative Risk and Impact Assessment
Researchers are evaluating how a complex host of factors, including lifestyle, health, socioeconomics, and the condition of the local environment (built and natural), add up to impact risks related to environmental justice—such as how living close to a contaminated site or in a low income, urban environment might increase the risk of asthma, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, or an impaired central nervous system.
Results of this ongoing work to date include:
- A series of innovative studies advancing risk management and lead exposure
3. Advancing Environmental Remediation and Community Resiliency
EPA has a robust research program to support the cleanup and remediation of contaminated sites. Because a disproportionate number of such sites are located within or in close vicinity to low income and other vulnerable communities, that work can be important to for supporting environmental justice. This work includes validating and demonstrating innovative metrics to assess longer-term social and economic benefits of remediation and restoration. Such as the following:
- evaluating whether and how remediation and restoration efforts revitalize communities;
- synthesizing published metrics and methods useful for linking remediation and restoration to revitalization and evaluate risks and resilience of contaminated sites from natural hazards, such as floods and extreme storms.
- Identifying and quantifying the benefits of local ecosystems (ecosystem services), and providing decision support tools at the community level that support decisions to realize and sustain them.
Results of this ongoing work to date include:
- Working with local communities in Great Lakes Areas of Concern to incorporate ecosystem services into community remediation and development strategies
- Studies linking the habitats of San Juan Estuary to environmental, health, and economic benefits to the local community