Public Meeting of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC)

Hello, I wanted to bring to your attention a new paper that my colleagues and I recently published that is relevant to the topic of EPA administration priorities. Our study found widespread evidence of greater pesticide exposure and harm in communities of color and low-income communities, both in residential and workplace settings, and concludes that these disparities exist in both rural and urban settings and occur throughout the lifecycle of pesticides, from manufacture to use. This study also finds that the disproportionate pesticide exposure and harms to these communities are being perpetuated by practices, policies, regulations and laws that are still on the books. It goes on to outline actions regulators can take right now to right these wrongs. In this paper we identify specific policies and laws that perpetuate pesticide harm to low income communities and communities of color in the U.S. Importantly we identify seven actions that EPA leadership can take to reduce the burden that pesticides place on marginalized communities. The paper is attached and available here: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-022-13057-4 Many of the authors on this paper are scholars in the field or work for grassroots organizations that represent people who are being harmed by these policies and practices. Please don't hesitate to reach out to myself or any of the authors of the paper for any questions you may have. Thanks for your work on this important issue. Nathan Donley, Ph.D Environmental Health Science Director Center for Biological Diversity ndonley@biologicaldiversity.org