Using Science to Promote Environmental and Climate Justice: The NIEHS Perspective

Environmental justice has long been a guiding theme of the research and training activities at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The Institute helped develop methods for Community-Based Participatory Research and has fostered strong partnerships between academic institutions and community groups in EJ communities. Advances in science offer new tools for promoting environmental justice. New biosensors for assessing individual exposures can provide real-time, inexpensive monitoring of multiple and cumulative exposures to a variety of chemical and non-chemical stressors. Enhanced understanding of low-dose effects and how toxic exposures interact with non-chemical stressors can also strengthen the case for special protections for disadvantaged communities. Climate change may increase disproportionate environmental impacts on disadvantaged communities, both through the impacts of severe weather and other climate change-related stressors and also through unintended health consequences of measures taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or adapt to changing climate. NIEHS is committed to developing scientific understanding of climate-related health impacts and ensuring the translation of that science promotes environmental and climate justice in US communities.