Claudio L, Torres T, Sanjurjo E, Sherman L R, Landrigan P J
Division of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, New York 10029, USA.
Environ Health Perspect. 1998 Jun;106 Suppl 3(Suppl 3):849-55. doi: 10.1289/ehp.98106849.
Children are highly susceptible to deleterious effects of environmental toxins. Those who live in underserved communities may be particularly at risk because environmental pollution has been found to be disproportionately distributed among communities. Mounting evidence suggests that asthma rates are rising and that this disease can be caused or aggravated by air pollution. Although ambient air quality has generally improved, these improvements have not reached minority communities in equal proportions. This and other data has fueled the concept of environmental justice or environmental equity, which has led to community activism and government actions. One possible example of environmental inequity and its consequences is the Hunt's Point community, in the South Bronx, New York. This community experiences a high pollution burden with the siting of facilities that emit hazardous wastes into the air. Our approach to this problem has been the formation of mechanisms for bidirectional communication between community residents, government entities, and academic institutions such as Mount Sinai Medical Center. As a result of this experience, we believe that the key to achieving environmental health, especially in communities of color where many children are at risk, is to empower residents to take charge of their environment by providing relevant educational opportunities. Strategies for environmental health education include multitiered training approaches that include community residents, parent education, direct children education, and community education through professional counselors and train-the-trainer approaches. We propose that academic researchers must use community residents not just as subjects of our studies, but to increase our mutual understanding of environmental health, resulting in active participation of community members in research design, data collection, analysis, and dissemination of results in order to make intervention strategies more effective.
儿童极易受到环境毒素的有害影响。那些生活在服务欠缺社区的儿童可能尤其面临风险，因为已发现环境污染在各社区间分布不均。越来越多的证据表明哮喘发病率在上升，且这种疾病可能由空气污染导致或加重。尽管环境空气质量总体上有所改善，但这些改善在少数族裔社区并未同等程度地实现。这些数据以及其他数据推动了环境正义或环境公平概念的形成，进而引发了社区行动主义和政府行动。环境不平等及其后果的一个可能例子是纽约市布朗克斯南部的亨特角社区。由于有向空气中排放危险废物的设施选址于此，该社区承受着沉重的污染负担。我们解决这个问题的方法是建立社区居民、政府实体以及西奈山医疗中心等学术机构之间的双向沟通机制。基于这段经历，我们认为实现环境健康的关键，尤其是在许多儿童面临风险的有色人种社区，是通过提供相关教育机会，使居民有能力掌控自己的环境。环境健康教育策略包括多层次培训方法，涵盖社区居民、家长教育、直接针对儿童的教育，以及通过专业顾问和培训培训者方法进行的社区教育。我们提议学术研究人员不仅要将社区居民用作研究对象，还要增进我们对环境健康的相互理解，从而使社区成员积极参与研究设计、数据收集、分析以及结果传播，以便让干预策略更有效。
