Racism as a public health issue in environmental health disparities and environmental justice: working toward solutions.

BACKGROUND: Environmental health research in the US has shown that racial and ethnic minorities and members of low-socioeconomic groups, are disproportionately burdened by harmful environmental exposures, in their homes, workplace, and neighborhood environments that impact their overall health and well-being. Systemic racism is a fundamental cause of these disproportionate exposures and associated health effects. To invigorate and inform current efforts on environmental justice and to raise awareness of environmental racism, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) hosted a workshop where community leaders, academic researchers, and NIEHS staff shared perspectives and discussed ways to inform future work to address health disparities. OBJECTIVES: To share best practices learned and experienced in partnerships between academic researchers and communities that are addressing environmental racism across the US; and to outline critical needs and future actions for NIEHS, other federal agencies, and anyone who is interested in conducting or funding research that addresses environmental racism and advances health equity for all communities. DISCUSSION: Through this workshop with community leaders and researchers funded by NIEHS, we learned that partnerships between academics and communities hold great promise for addressing environmental racism; however, there are still profound obstacles. To overcome these barriers, translation of research into plain language and health-protective interventions is needed. Structural changes are also needed in current funding mechanisms and training programs across federal agencies. We also learned the importance of leveraging advances in technology to develop creative solutions that can protect public health.

Use of community-owned and -managed research to assess the vulnerability of water and sewer services in marginalized and underserved environmental justice communities.

In the study described in this article, the authors' objective was to use community-owned and -managed research (COMR) to assess the safety and adequacy of water and sewer services in three low-income African-American communities in Mebane, North Carolina. Community monitor (CM) training workshops, household surveys, and drinking water and surface water tests of fecal pollution were completed at private (target) and regulated public (referent) service households. CMs collected survey data showing a mixture of failing private wells and septic systems and regulated public drinking water and sewer infrastructure. Drinking water and surface water fecal pollution levels exceeded limits protecting health at target and referent households. COMR methods built community capacity to investigate private and regulated public drinking water and sewer service failures. Drinking and surface water fecal contamination levels suggest a need for provision of improved water and sewer services to protect health in these underserved and marginalized communities.

Lack of basic amenities: indicators of health disparities in low-income minority communities and tribal areas.

North Carolina has numerous low-income minority communities and tribal areas where basic public health amenities are lacking. Disparities in clean air, safe drinking water, and toxin-free soil create human exposures that result in poor health, depressed property value, and more contaminated environments than are present in higher income communities.

The West End Revitalization Association (WERA)'s right to basic amenities movement: voice and language of ownership and management of public health solutions in Mebane, North Carolina.

The West End Revitalization Association (WERA) cultivated strategies for assessing environmental hazards, managing stakeholder participation, and implementing corrective actions in three low-income African American communities in Mebane, North Carolina. The community voices evolved into language to drive WERA's "Right to Basic Amenities Movement" as a way to address health, legal, and quality-of-life disparities. The sustainability of this movement depends on communicating a solutions process with funding equity. Disparities are a way of life for impacted residents: dusty dead-end streets, contaminated drinking water, failed backyard septic tanks, and putrid odors. WERA organized on "common knowledge" for effective use of public health statutes and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. WERA's board, staff, and volunteers exercised their voices in the language of government, public health, university research, and legal agencies. WERA's best practices and lessons learned may influence public policy in comparable communities in North Carolina and throughout the nation.

Use of EPA collaborative problem-solving model to obtain environmental justice in North Carolina.

BACKGROUND: The West End Revitalization Association (WERA), a community-based organization (CBO) in Mebane, North Carolina, was awarded a Collaborative Problem-Solving (CPS) grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Justice (EPA OEJ). OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this paper is to highlight WERA's efforts to bring stakeholders in three low-income African-American communities where environmental hazards created public health risks together for collaboration rather than litigation. METHODS: WERA's board and staff organized nine working groups with specific areas of expertise that would facilitate research, identify lack of basic amenities, and encourage funding for corrective action and participation in progress reporting workshops. WERA used consensus building, dispute resolution, and resource mobilization as part of the CPS model to address noncompliance with environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Toxic Substances Control Act, and Solid Waste Disposal Act. RESULTS: WERA's CPS "Right to Basic Amenities" project produced a framework for (1) grassroots management and ownership of a collaborative problem-solving process; (2) bringing stakeholders together with diverse and conflicting viewpoints; (3) implementation of an innovative community-owned and managed (COMR) research model; and (4) leveraging millions of dollars to fund installation of first-time municipal water/sewer services, street paving, and relocation of the 119-bypass to advance environmental health solutions. CONCLUSION: The structure and successes of WERA's Right to Basic Amenities project have been discussed at demonstration and training sessions to help others replicate the model in comparable low-income communities of color in North Carolina and across the United States.

The West End Revitalization Association's community-owned and -managed research model: development, implementation, and action.

BACKGROUND: Principal investigators (PIs) of community-based projects are predominantly university faculty who partner with community-based organizations (CBOs) to find a place to conduct research in communities that will cooperate with their research objectives. University-managed research models (UMRMs) are not always beneficial for CBOs because the university usually manages the study, collects and owns the data, and leverages control at each stage of research, without priority to resolution of problems impacting the quality of life of participating communities. OBJECTIVES: We present the principles of community-owned and -managed research (COMR), as a new community-driven research model developed by the West End Revitalization Association (WERA), a CBO in Mebane, North Carolina. METHODS: We describe WERA's development of COMR, compare the power hierarchies of COMR with traditional UMRMs, distinguish COMR partnerships from UMRM partnerships, discuss disbursement of funds, and control/ownership of data. As the PI of research activities, WERA drafted Memoranda of Agreement (MOAs) for all partners, including academic researchers, implemented quality assurance and control procedures, submitted community research protocols for institutional review, and retained data ownership for action, activism, and problem solving. COMR methods encouraged corrective action of environmental justice (EJ) problems in affected communities, including provision of public, regulated drinking water and sewer services. CONCLUSIONS: COMR promotes CBOs with demonstrated organizational capacity to PI and project manager. The COMR model goes beyond UMRMs and CBPR because it emphasized the credibility and capacity of CBOs to develop, own, manage, foster, and sustain viable research agendas to address ongoing environmental hazards and related threats to health and quality of life.