From HHS:
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“HHS Environmental Justice Strategy and Implementation Plan
HHS recognizes that disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards with negative health effects persists in minority and low-income populations and Indian tribes and that coordinated Federal action is needed to eliminate these disparities. The HHS vision for environmental justice is ‘a nation that equitably promotes healthy community environments and protects the health of all people’. The 2012 HHS Environmental Justice Strategy and Implementation Plan (2012 HHS EJ Strategy) provides clear direction of goals, strategies and actions to address environmental justice in minority and low-income populations and Indian tribes.
The 2012 HHS EJ Strategy was developed as part of the Department’s reaffirmation of its commitment to environmental justice. In August 2011, HHS joined 16 other Federal agencies in signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898. The MOU called for each agency to develop an environmental justice strategy and prepare annual implementation progress reports. HHS published a draft EJ Strategy in October 2011 for public comment. The final 2012 HHS EJ Strategy reflects comments received during the public comment process, as well as comments and concerns expressed in seventeen stakeholder engagements between November 2010 and November 2011.
The 2012 HHS EJ Strategy is organized into four interrelated strategic elements as follows:
•Policy Development and Dissemination
•Education and Training
•Research and Data Collection, Analysis, and Utilization
•Services
Overview of the Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice
The Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJ IWG) was established in 1994 under Executive Order (EO) 12898. On September 22, 2010, Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Nancy Sutley, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, reinvigorated the EJ IWG. The role of the EJ IWG is to guide, support and enhance federal environmental justice and community-based activities, and it requires each of the 17 Federal agencies who are members of the working group to ‘make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations.’ Visit http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/ for more information.
On August 4, 2011, the leadership of the 17 Federal agencies, including HHS, took an important step in the Administration’s effort to support environmental justice by signing the Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898 (EJ MOU). Among the responsibilities called for in the EJ MOU is for each of the Federal agencies to review, and where appropriate, update their existing environmental justice strategies.
HHS Environmental Justice
•HHS 2012 Environmental Justice Strategy
•HHS 2012 Environmental Justice Strategy (PDF)
•HHS 2012 Environmental Justice Progress Report
•HHS 2012 Environemtnal Justice Progress Report (PDF)
Environmental Justice across HHS
•CDC/OMHD
•NIH/NIEHS
•NIH/NLM
Additional Resources
•Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice In Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations (Executive Order 12898) (PDF – TBD KB)
•F2010 White House Environmental Justice Forum Speech
•Environmental Justice at the EPA
http://www.hhs.gov/environmentaljustice/