Department of Population Health (MT Herrera and A Ghassabian), NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health (B Girma), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY.
Acad Pediatr. 2024 Sep-Oct;24(7S):S167-S172. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2023.09.016.
Environmental racism poses a significant threat to child health. It is a major contributor to disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards that are linked to adverse health outcomes. This narrative review shows the profound impact that environmental racism poses to healthy child development through 3 examples. Historical redlining provides compelling evidence of how historical policies continue to influence neighborhoods' physical and social conditions. Exploring chemicals in beauty products reveals how anti-Black perceptions of beauty work to expose children of color to endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Finally, by exploring childhood lead exposure, we see how decades of inequitable implementation of lead exposure prevention policies contribute to persistent disparities in the United States today. Fixing these structural issues is complex and will require political will and investment. Yet, individual clinicians play an important role in their local communities in protecting children from the harms of environmental racism, through education, genuine collaboration with the community, and advocacy.
环境种族主义对儿童健康构成重大威胁。它是造成环境危害不成比例暴露的主要因素，而这些危害与不良健康结果有关。本叙述性评论通过 3 个例子展示了环境种族主义对儿童健康发展的深远影响。历史上的红线政策提供了令人信服的证据，说明历史政策如何继续影响社区的物质和社会条件。探讨美容产品中的化学物质揭示了反黑肤色的美容观念如何使有色人种的儿童接触到内分泌干扰化学物质。最后，通过探讨儿童铅暴露问题，我们可以看到几十年来铅暴露预防政策的不平等实施如何导致美国今天持续存在差异。解决这些结构性问题很复杂，需要政治意愿和投资。然而，临床医生在其所在的社区中通过教育、与社区的真正合作和倡导，在保护儿童免受环境种族主义危害方面发挥着重要作用。
