H. Patricia Hynes, MA, MS, Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, Boston, MA 02118, 617-638-7720, hph@bu.edu

Cumulative risk analysis that addresses environmental justice issues encompasses analysis of the social, built and physical environments that contribute to health hazards, health risks and health disparities. This talk will provide a synthesis of studies that make a compelling case for all of these environments to be included in cumulative risk analysis and in the environmental and public health efforts to reduce and prevent health disparities. . It will also suggest databases and indices from social, environmental and health sciences that can be used to build a model with which to screen and prioritize environmental justice communities in greatest need of remedial action and health promotion. Use of these databases and indices can open the doors to an enormous body of social science and public health literature on vulnerability and health disparities to the arena of environmental risk analysis. This is one major conclusion from the recent examination of issues of cumulative risks and vulnerability by the EPA National Environmental Justice Advisory Council’s Cumulative Risks/Impacts Work Group, of which the presenter is a member.

Learning Objectives:

• To define the relationship between environmental risk, vulnerability, and health disparities.
• To provide an understanding of how measures of socioeconmic status and health disparity can be used in analyses of environmental risk.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.