Intro to Environmental Justice

Intro to Environmental Justice

Multiple Select

What do you do to make yourself healthy?

• exercise

• diet

• no smoking/drugs

• playing the game

• eating fast food

Multiple Select

Which of the following is an indicator of a healthy community? Choose all that apply

• quality healthcare

• healthy food

• parks

• transportation

• education

Open Ended

Do you think that your community is healthy? Why or why not?

Multiple Choice

Equality is based on

• sameness and fairness

• access and opportunity

• differences and advantages

• success and failure

Multiple Choice

Equity is based on

• sameness and fairness

• access and opportunity

• differences and advantages

• success and failure

Drag and Drop

Equality gives everyone​

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size box. It ​

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help everyone see over the fence.​

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

the same

different

doesn't

does

Drag and Drop

Equity gives everyone​ a ​

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size box. It ​help everyone according to their ​

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.​ ​ ​

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different

needs

same

wants

health

Multiple Select

Equity requires (choose all that apply)

• Power

• Social Responsibility

• Resources

• Even distribution of resources

• Government Assistance

Multiple Choice

What has created the inequities we see?

• Discrimination

• Apathy

• Lack of non-profit organizations to help

• Lack of jobs

Open Ended

Do you see inequities in the health of your community? What are they?

Multiple Choice

What is a food desert?

• A food desert is a term used to describe a barren land with no vegetation (ie a city)

• A food desert is an area with limited access to affordable and nutritious food (ie a supermarket)

• A food desert is an area with an abundance of affordable and nutritious food.
• A food desert is a place where only desserts are available.

Multiple Choice

If you do not have a supermarket what do you need to obtain good/healthy food?

• Transportation to get the healthier food

• Relying solely on processed foods
• Ignoring the need for good/healthy food
• Ordering takeout every day

Multiple Choice

What is the difference in a supermarket and a convenience store in terms of what they offer?

• Convenience stores have a wider variety of healthy products compared to supermarkets.

• Supermarkets offer a wider variety of healthy products compared to convenience stores.

• Supermarkets are typically smaller in size than convenience stores.
• Supermarkets are only open during specific hours, unlike convenience stores.

Multiple Choice

If convenience store offer no healthy options why would people buy food there?

• They do not have transportation to a supermarket.

• They do not care about their health.

• It is cheaper than the grocery stores.

• They are lazy

Drag and Drop

Processed foods are not made to provide​

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instead to increase ​

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production to make you feel good.

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nutrients

dopamine

seratonin

sugar

calories

melatonin

Multiple Select

Processed foods are linked to

• Diabetes

• Heart Disease

• Asthama

• Broken bones

Multiple Choice

What is the difference in average lifespan between affluent Memphians and the poorest Memphians?

• 10 years

• 13 years

• 15 years

• 5 years

​https://youtu.be/E6ZpkhPciaU?feature=shared

Multiple Choice

What is one reason it is hard to get grocery stores to open in poorer areas?

• The don't think they can make money

• They don't like the people in the area

• They don't think they will be able to find workers

• They don't think it is safe

Multiple Choice

What is the practice of redlining?

• Redlining is a practice of drawing red lines on maps for navigation purposes.
• Redlining refers to the process of painting buildings with red paint for identification.
• Redlining is a term used in sports to describe crossing the finish line first.
• The practice of redlining involves denying services or raising prices based on the racial or ethnic composition of certain areas.

Multiple Choice

How does the process of redlining effect areas today?

• Redlining has contributed to economic disparities and segregation in neighborhoods by limiting access to resources and opportunities.
• Redlining has only affected a few neighborhoods and not the majority.
• Redlining has no impact on economic disparities or segregation in neighborhoods.
• Redlining has improved economic opportunities and reduced segregation in neighborhoods.

Multiple Choice

Based on the maps in the video do you feel like redlining is still happening today?

• Yes

• No

Multiple Choice

What is one solution offered by the woman at the healthy eating class

• More fast food resturants

• More restaurants serving healthy foods

• Meal delivery services

• Farmer's Market

Open Ended

Look at the map. Locate your area. Are you in a food desert? How do you know?

Miles Aways, Years Apart

In Shelby County, as in other places, where you live is a strong indicator of how long you’ll live — and the data shows that the difference isn’t just a matter of months or years but decades. 

“I always tell audiences that if you put up a map of socioeconomic status in any geographic location, and then you put up a map of health outcomes, those maps tend to look the same,” said Dr. Michelle Taylor, director of the Shelby County Health Department.

According to provisional life expectancy data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, life expectancy at birth in the United States fell to 76.1 years in 2021 — its lowest level since 1996. 

Multiple Choice

The average life expectancy in the US

• Increasing

• Decreasing

• Staying the same

Multiple Choice

Maps of ___________________ in any geographic locations and health outcomes look the same.

• Socioeconomic status

• Available parks

• Bus Routes

• Job Availability

Life expectancy at birth represents the average number of years an infant would live if current mortality trends continued through their lifetime. 

Those numbers are lower in the nation’s southeastern states, according to the CDC’s 2020 Life Expectancy at Birth by State. 

As reported in the CDC’s 2020 data, the most recent available, residents of both Tennessee and Arkansas have an average life expectancy at birth of 73.8 years. Those who live in Mississippi have an average life expectancy at birth of 71.9 — the lowest of all 50 states. 

The states with the highest average life expectancies are Hawaii at 82 and California at 81.3. Minnesota and New York are tied for third with an average life expectancy of 81. 

But, while Tennessee’s overall average life expectancy is 73.8 years, that number swings wildly between different areas of the state and even within each individual county.

For smaller areas of the country, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics has identified life expectancy at birth by census tract for the period of 2010-2015, the most recent data at the neighborhood level. 

Multiple Select

What states have the lowest average life expectancy at birth?

• Tennessee

• Mississippi

• Arkansas

• California

• Hawaii

Open Ended

What do the states with the lowest average life expectancy at birth have in common?

Multiple Select

What states have the highest average life expectancy at birth?

• Tennessee

• Mississippi

• Arkansas

• California

• Hawaii

Those estimates come from U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project , a collaboration between the NCHS, National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 

The lowest life expectancy estimate for Shelby County is in census tract 55, an area near Presidents Island between Kansas Street, South Parkway, Latham Street and I-55. Residents in that tract’s Mallory Heights neighborhood would have a life expectancy of 65.3 years, according to the NCHS data.  

The census tract in Shelby County with the highest life expectancy is No. 216.12, where residents can expect to live, on average, 84.6 years. That tract is located in Collierville, near the Fayette County line, and is bordered by Peterson Lake Road, Shelton Road, Collierville-Arlington Road and West Poplar Avenue. It’s a highly residential area that includes Collierville Elementary School and a new subdivision currently under development. 

The difference between tract 55 and 216.12 gives Shelby County’s estimated life expectancy a range of 19.3 years. 

Multiple Choice

The difference in the lowest life expectancy in Memphis and the highest is

• 19 years

• 10 years

• 5 years

• 25 years

Air pollution steals time from Black communities

Yolonda Spinks feels like sickness is unavoidable in South Memphis, the place she’s always called home. 

During her childhood, she suffered chronic headaches and severe allergies. As an adult, she spends an outsized amount of time in doctors’ waiting rooms, seeking solutions for her persistent symptoms. 

But last October, she had a eureka moment.

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In her late 20s, Spinks was diagnosed with keratoconus, an eye disease in which the cornea bulges outward, creating vision problems. The root cause of keratoconus is unknown, but allergies — and the constant eye rubbing that comes with it — and genetics are potential suspects. Glasses can help with the condition, but by the time doctors caught it, Spinks’ case was so advanced that she would need a cornea transplant to correct it.

Last year, she was in Houston for an environmental justice conference, and she and four other attendees made an impromptu trip 90 miles east to Port Arthur, Texas, an industrial port that’s home to the country’s biggest oil refinery. 

Peering out of the passenger window, Spinks saw the steel pipes of the refineries that frame the neighborhoods and witnessed white particles falling to the ground, like snow, and smog in the air. Within a few minutes, her head started hurting, her eyes started burning and she started thinking about her childhood, which was full of symptoms just like those. 

At home, the smokestacks of Shelby County’s biggest industrial facilities loom near southwest Memphis, and cars pass by on heavily traveled highways within earshot of the houses. 

In Texas, Spinks thought she might be having a poorly timed allergy flare-up, but when the other passengers said they felt the same way, her long-held suspicion of air quality’s impact on her health solidified. She wondered: If a short drive past the refineries was causing this reaction, what impact could a lifetime of exposure have?

Multiple Choice

What does Spinx think caused her allergies?

• pollen

• industrial air pollution

• going on a trip to Houston

• food

Multiple Choice

What caused Spinks keratoconus

• rubbing her eyes during an allergy attack

• bacteria in her eye

• water pollution in her drinking water

• eating too many processed foods

Last fall, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that a nondescript Memphis facility on Florida Street has been emitting a a chemical called ethylene oxide, or EtO, for more than 40 years. 

Sterilization Services of Tennessee is tucked away near homes in Mallory Heights, a neighborhood with an average life expectancy of 65.3 years — the lowest in all of Shelby County, based on data from the U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project.

The project — a collaboration from the National Center for Health Statistics, the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation — showed life expectancy estimates by census tract from 2010 to 2015. 

The EPA told South Memphis residents last fall that EtO can cause up to 2,000 additional cancer cases per one million people throughout a lifetime of exposure; the chemical has been linked to leukemia, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and stomach and breast cancers.

The Houston conference was one of Spinks first forays into the world of environmental advocacy — a natural progression from her advocacy work in public health, where she focused on maternal mortality.

“When you put the industrial pollutants in communities that lack resources, that lack access to basic human needs like health care, these kids grow into adults with all these ailments,” Spinks said.
As the youngest of four children — the “last pea in the pod” — to a single mother, Spinks heard complaints about air quality but never sensed a serious concern about its health impacts. Through her foray into public health advocacy, and with a growing body of air pollution research to back her up, she feels confident there’s a connection. 

​Danger in the Air

Multiple Choice

What is EtO?

• Ethylene Oxide
• Ethyl Oxide
• Ethanol Oxide
• Ethylenium Oxide

Multiple Choice

What is the name of the company pouring EtO into South Memphis?

• Sterilization Services of Tennessee

• Valero

• Fed Ex

• The Memphis Airport

Multiple Choice

What has EtO been linked to?

• heart disease
• respiratory issues
• liver damage
• cancer

Until the EPA’s regulations catch up with its own science, advocates like Spinks know they’re dealing with one more pollutant. 

Like most places, Memphis’ industrial activity is concentrated in low-income, Black communities because of historic redlining. Many residents are already concerned about the emissions emanating from the epicenter of industry at President’s Island in southwest Memphis, but “air pollution” is a broad category. And they continue to learn about new emissions, such as EtO, as well as new types of chemical threats.

“Environmental justice and public health are not two separate things,” Spinks said. “Pollution is a public health crisis.” 

The American Lung Association’s annual “State of the Air” report, released in April, said that more than one-third of Americans still live in places with failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone or particle matter pollution. 
Globally, air pollution robs two years from the average person’s life span — comparable to the impact of smoking. That finding comes from the Air Quality Life Index, which researches the impact of air quality on life expectancy. Overall, the United States’ air quality is better than many countries, but Americans’ exposures generally differ based on their income and race. 

In the U.S. counties with the worst air quality, more than 70% of the affected residents are people of color, American Lung Association’s annual report states. 

A public health crisis

Multiple Choice

On average air pollution causes a loss of ___ years of life, similar to smoking

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4

Multiple Choice

The area effected most by air pollution are typically

• Higher income

• White

• People of Color

• people who live in the mountians

Mallory Heights is located in Shelby County’s census tract No. 55 and is 97% Black, according to Census Reporter, an independent project initially funded by the Knight Foundation that compiles and analyzes U.S. Census bureau data.
The site notes that most of the data has a margin of error of at least 10%, but it puts the median household income in the tract at just over $18,000. More than 55% of the tract’s residents live below the poverty line, and 35% of the tract’s 1,255 housing units are vacant. 

The concentration of particulate matter, a type of soot that’s arguably one of the greatest environmental risks to human mortality, increases as an area’s Black population increases, according to a study from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Environmental Systems Research Institute.

The study found a sharp increase in particulate matter pollution in neighborhoods where more than 85% of the residents are Black, as in Mallory Heights. Particulate matter pollution declines in areas where at least 70% of residents are white. 

A similar link between air pollution exposure, race and income extends to the rest of the EPA’s alphabet soup of air pollutant categories, like PM, VOCs and HAPs. 

In a life expectancy study published last year in The Lancet medical journals, researchers found that Black populations continue to live shorter lives on average than white populations, despite overall life expectancies increasing. The authors said local-level data is crucial to eliminate health disparities and increase longevity for all. But in Shelby County, a local air pollution expert said data is lacking.

The absence of information

Chunrong Jia is a professor at the University of Memphis’s School of Public Health who studies air quality and environmental health disparities. He said air pollution is linked to lower life expectancies globally, but no one has conducted comprehensive research on the link between air quality and life expectancy in Shelby County. 

“The reality is most disadvantaged communities live closer to the emitters and pollution sources, but does that mean being closer will always result in higher exposure?” Jia said. “It’s not always the case.”
But there’s not an air monitoring site in southwest Memphis.

“There are currently five operating air monitors now funded and approved by EPA,” Shelby County Health Department director Michelle Taylor said in a statement. “There are also five dormant sites that were at one time funded and approved by the EPA but are no longer maintained, as they are no longer supported by the EPA.” 

Three of those defunct air monitors were in southwest Memphis until their removal between 2007 and 2008. 

Some residents were outraged to learn there was no longer an air monitor in their community, and in 2021, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said the county planned to analyze the placement of air monitors. More than two years later, that assessment hasn’t happened, and Harris’ office didn’t provide evidence of plans to do so. 

Jia is well-versed in the scientific literature that connects air pollution exposure to lower life expectancies globally, but without sufficient monitoring data, he said he can’t make that claim locally. That’s why he wishes there were air monitors in southwest Memphis.

Multiple Choice

What happened to the air monitors in South Memphis?

• The never put any in South Memphis

• They were deactivated

• They were broken on purpose

Multiple Choice

Why is it important to have air monitors in South Memphis?

• To track the migration patterns of birds in the area
• To track air quality levels and ensure the health and safety of residents.
• To provide entertainment for residents by displaying colorful lights
• To monitor noise pollution levels instead of air quality

“Whether it shows an elevation or it does not show an elevation, at least that’s extra information you can present to the public,” Jia said. 

Frustrated by the lack of data on southwest Memphis’s air pollution, Memphis Community Against Pollution is one of 16 community groups and two universities working with Appalachian Voices to deploy additional air monitors across five states. 

“The data collected will increase local and regional understanding of air quality issues, and will support advocacy for air quality standards, permitting decisions and regulatory enforcement actions that protect human health,” Appalachian Voices said in a statement. 

They’re installing the monitors through a $118,000 EPA grant. It’s a heavy lift, though, and they’re seeking technical assistance to maintain the monitor, but the plans aren’t finalized. 

Jia sees a need for more research on air pollution exposure in Shelby County, but he said it’s also important to not forget about other environmental stressors on low-income, Black communities. Lead poisoning, pesticides and contaminated drinking water are all more likely to affect communities of color, as well.
It’s the reason the federal government has directed billions of dollars to disadvantaged communities through the Justice40 program. In late April, the White House announced the creation of an Environmental Justice Office to address the disproportionate health impacts from pollution and climate change, in part by addressing research gaps. 

The EPA is approaching multiple deadlines to approve stricter air pollution standards, including EtO, the chemical byproduct entering the air from Sterilization Services of Tennessee. To the frustration of community advocates, that facility has voluntarily lowered emissions at its other locations in other states, but local management hasn’t done so here. Residents have shown up to public forums such as the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission meetings to ask for more — more research, more change and more urgency — and both groups passed resolutions in support of the community’s efforts. 

Spinks often thinks about the adage that suggests yelling, “Fire!” instead of, “Help!” when trying to get people’s attention. 

It’s hard to make people care about a threat unless they’re personally affected, she said. And most of the time, it’s hard to make them care about an “invisible” threat like air pollution at all. 

Multiple Select

What are other environmental stressors that might effect overall health of black communities?

• Lead Poisening

• Pesticides

• Contaminated Water

• Lack of transportation

• Eduction

Multiple Choice

What is the new government agency in charge of studying and fixing disproportionate health impacts on poorer communities

• Environmental Justice Office

• Justice 40

• EPA

• White House