Environmental Justice - Affected Groups

Affected Groups

Among the affected groups of Environmental Justice, those in high-poverty and racial minority groups have the most propensity to receive the harm of environmental injustice. Poor people account for more than 20% of the human health impacts from industrial toxic air releases, compared to 12.9% of the population nationwide. This does not account for the inequity found among individual minority groups. It is not true that minorities happen to be more exposed to environmental disparities solely because of their socio-economic status. Studies that test statistically for effects of race and ethnicity, while keeping income and other factors, show significant racial gaps in exposure that persist across all bands of income

African-Americans are affected by a variety of Environmental Justice issues. One notorious example is the “Cancer Alley” region of Louisiana. This 85 mile stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans is home to 125 companies that produce one quarter of the petrochemical products manufactured in the United States. The United States Commission on Civil Rights has concluded that the African-American community has been disproportionately affected by Cancer Alley as a result of Louisiana's current state and local permit system for hazardous facilities, as well as their low socio-economic status and limited political influence.

Indigenous groups are often the victims of environmental injustices. Native Americans have suffered abuses related to uranium mining in the American West. Churchrock, New Mexico, in Navajo territory was home to the longest continuous uranium mining in any Navajo land. From 1954 until 1968, the tribe leased land to mining companies who did not obtain consent from Navajo families or report any consequences of their activities. Not only did the miners significantly deplete the limited water supply, but they also contaminated what was left of the Navajo water supply with uranium. Kerr-McGee and United Nuclear Corporation, the two largest mining companies, argued that the Federal Water Pollution Control Act did not apply to them, and maintained that Native American land is not subject to environmental protections. The courts did not force them to comply with US clean water regulations until 1980.

The most common example of environmental injustice among latinos is the exposure to pesticides faced by farmworkers. After DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides were banned in the United States in 1972, farmers began using more toxic organophosphate pesticides. A large portion of farmworkers in the US are working illegally, and as a result of their political disadvantage, are not able to protest against regular exposure to pesticides. Exposure to chemical pesticides in the cotton industry also affects farmers in India and Uzbekistan. Banned throughout much of the rest of the world because of the potential threat to human health and the natural environment, Endosulfan is a highly toxic chemical, the safe use of which cannot be guaranteed in many of the developing countries it is used in. Endosulfan, like DDT, is an organochlorine and persists in the environment long after it has killed the target pests, leaving a deadly legacy for people and wildlife.

Residents of cities along the US-Mexico border are also affected. Maquiladoras are assembly plants operated by American, Japanese, and other foreign countries, located along the US-Mexico border. The maquiladoras use cheap Mexican labor to assemble imported components and raw material and then transport finished products back to the US. Much of the waste ends up being illegally dumped in sewers, ditches, or in the desert. Along the Lower Rio Grande Valley, maquiladoras dump their toxic wastes into the river from which 95 percent of residents get their drinking water. In the border cities of Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico, the rate of anencephaly, babies born without brains, is four times the national average.

One reason for toxic industries to concentrate in minority neighborhoods or poor neighborhoods is because of their lack of political power. Whether it be lack of homeownership or just because of a general inability to participate politically, these groups are treated unfairly. This lack of political participation could indicate why latinos are the most affected by environmental injustice in the US since many latinos are illegal immigrants and cannot participate in the political system.