April 20-26 is Laboratory Professionals Week! This year APHL is focusing on environmental health and the laboratorians who work to detect the presence of contaminants in both people and in the environment. This post is part of a series.
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By Surili Sutaria Patel, Senior Specialist, Environmental Health, APHL
Today is Earth Day! People all over the world plant trees, clean up their communities, contact their elected officials to take action and more. By protecting the environment, we are protecting our health from harmful pollution and hazardous contaminants found in our environments.
Yet not all environments are created equally. Some communities throughout the US are faced with environmental health issues because of where they are or their residents’ socio-economic status. Such communities are often disproportionately exposed to harmful pollutants. Achieving environmental justice – or the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people (regardless of race, color, national origin, or income) with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies – is key to truly protecting the health and environments of all.
In an effort to better link concerned communities with their public health laboratory to answer questions about environmental contaminants, APHL is proud to launch the Meeting Community Needs through Environmental Laboratories web-based tool. Created for advocacy and consumer groups to better understand the role of an environmental public health laboratory, this resource aims to address how the public health system can better utilize the rich capabilities of laboratories to meet environmental health needs. The site contains the APHL report on Meeting Community Health Needs through Environmental Health Labs, presentations from a forum held in 2012, a YouTube video, next steps and more. The site also hosts a discussion board where anyone can post questions about environmental health concerns.
Read a recent blog post by our partner, Dr. Jalonne L. White-Newsome at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, entitled, “What are Environmental Justice Communities and how can Laboratory Testing Protect the Most Vulnerable?”
Join the discussion today and tell us about your community environmental health concerns!
