Increasing evidence of research reveals that Black Americans are exposed to greater environmental and health risks within miles of their communities in comparison to their white counterparts. To combat these growing rates, The National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) held a summit in Washington, D.C., presenting a comprehensive report to the White House Cancer Moonshot program on environmental disparities in predominantly Black and minority communities.
The latest NMQF report calls attention to two striking realities. First, historically marginalized populations often reside and work in environmentally toxic environments where elements in the air, water, and soil elevate their risk for cancer. Additionally, public policy has consistently denied these communities access to the best modern cancer care while simultaneously elevating the risk for cancer through exposure to hazardous waste.
NMQF President and Chief Executive Officer Gary A. Puckrein, shared that roughly 60% of Black Americans live in a community with one or more abandoned waste sites. Further, three of the five largest commercial hazardous waste landfills are located predominantly in African American and Latinx communities.
“Communities marginalized by lower economic status and environmental exposure are slow to see the benefits of progressive cancer developments. Stats reveal Blacks have the highest diagnosis rates and shorter survival rates of most cancers,” said Puckrein.
Speakers of the NMQF summit echoed President Joe Biden’s call to action in emphasizing the imperative need to carry out the vision of the Cancer Moonshot program, a White House initiative created to reduce cancer deaths across the country.
NMQF identified Flint, Michigan as the initial location to commence this research and report, serving as a blueprint for the research and approach to resolving these issues across the country.
The Consequences of Environmental Injustices in Washington, D.C.
Throughout Washington, D.C., marginalized communities east of the Anacostia River are disproportionately affected by climate change, facing issues including a lack of green spaces, increased flooding, and poor air quality. Similar to other parts of the country, District residents also face a host of health implications due to environmental injustices in the city’s most underserved areas.
Last October, District Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb court ordered the Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) to pay over $57 million in an environmental settlement to rectify allegations of discharging toxic chemicals into the city’s waterways and land over decades.
The agreement demanded Pepco dedicate roughly $47 million to cleaning up the Anacostia River for years of hazardous pollution, as well as contamination at its Benning Road and Buzzard Point facilities, while also investigating the historical and current environmental impacts of their District-wide system of transformer vaults.
In accordance with the NMQF’s findings, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is found to operate, own, or subsidize roughly 18,158 properties that are reportedly located within one mile of an abandoned hazardous waste site, also known as a superfund site. The majority of these tenants also happen to be households of color.
According to a 2014 Office of Planning report, “Ward 5 holds roughly one-half of the city’s total supply of industrial land,” and those numbers have not changed by too far of a margin.
The environmental impacts weigh heavily on residents causing pollution and environmental degradation due to emissions, resource consumption and waste generation.
Ward 5, housing a population of 88,965 persons, contains a 46% African American population rate, and roughly 20% population of non-White, minority residents.
Brenda Lee Richardson, an eco-feminist and coordinator for the Anacostia Parks & Community Collaborative, has found these inequities to be the result of intersecting economic, cultural, and environmental factors created by failed public policy with resources inaccessible to far too many Americans.
“The health disparities east of the river are alarmingly high. Here, it just continues to escalate and it’s like who’s paying attention to heart attacks. [In terms of] cancer, we’ve got the highest rate of breast cancer in the entire city. So, we know that it’s associated with pollution,” Lee Richardson told the Informer.
Lee Richardson often refers to the residents of her community as the most “disfavored” sector of the District, as she has grown tired of people determining the fate of east of the river residents by deeming them “vulnerable and marginalized.”
She emphasized the collective effort needed to improve the landscape of the city’s residents who are most affected by environmental disparities.
“I think the challenge is getting the different agencies, universities, nonprofits, environmental groups, to all collaborate on the same page instead of working in silos,” Lee Richardson said. “The Department of Health should always be at the table. The Department of Mental Health should be at the table, MPD should be at the table when you’re talking about these environmental justice issues, because it impacts the very essence of who we are as residents of the District of Columbia.”