United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance
(2201 A)
EPA-300-F-97-00
June 1998
Office of Environmental Justice
&EPA Environmental Justice
Fact Sheet
:th
16m Street Health Clinic - Milwaukee, WI
A Success Story
The Environmental Health Education Project (EHEP)
was designed to help people become more aware of
environmental hazards (i.e., pollutants) found in their
home environment and community. Funded in part by
EPA's Office of Environmental Justice, it focused on a
culturally diverse and low-income community located on
the south side of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The project
also helped residents learn how to reduce these
exposures and resulting risks. The EHEP placed special
emphasis on improving children's health.
Administered by the Sixteenth Street Community
Health Center (SSCHC), the project targeted Hispanics,
Southeast Asians, primarily Hmongs and Laotians, and
other ethnic groups living in the vicinity of the health
center. The target area was approximately six and a half
square miles, bordered by the Menomonee and
Kinnikinnic rivers in the north and south respectively, and
Lake Michigan in the east.
A 1995 survey of the target area found that most
residents are poorly informed about health risks
associated with exposure to environmental hazards. For
example, the residents had much lower than expected
awareness of the connection between respiratory illness
and poor air quality. Southeast Asians respondents
reported catching and consuming fish from local waters,
but were unaware of health advisories about the risks of
consumption of these fish.
Not knowing about potential health risks may be
traceable to a culture that encourages self reliance among
family groups and to language barriers that have
prevented them from having access to public health
information normally available through the news media
such as local television and newspapers. Language and
cultural differences continue to pose a major challenge to
federal, state, local, and SSCHC official's efforts to reach
out to Southeast Asians and others groups. Outreach is
made much more difficult because of the need to develop
a culturally appropriate strategy for each ethnic group
within diverse communities.
The SSCHC has made significant progress in
community education by making health related
information available to neighborhood residents in the
groups' native languages such as Spanish and Hmong.
Some of these efforts may have influenced the
SSCHC has also embarked on a program to educate
clinic patients and their families about the presence of
harmful pollutants in or near their homes. SSCHC has also
sent trained bilingual representatives to some patients'
homes show them how to minimize harmful exposures.
Under the Lead Screening and Outreach initiative, children
with elevated blood lead levels were provided monitoring
and follow-up services to reduce risk factors in the home
and help prevent further lead poisoning.
Efforts were also made to remove hazards such as
asbestos and lead paint in some older residences. While
lead is generally viewed as a significant health problem
removing lead paint remains a major challenge. One
reason is that the majority of occupants are renters who
have little, if any, influence or resources to ensure lead
paint removal.
Although efforts are on-going to prevent pollution,
reduce point source air and water emissions and clean up
or improve hazardous waste sites in older, industrialized
communities, residents continue to be exposed on a daily
basis to pollution. Low income residents may lack the
resources to make improvements on their homes to reduce
lead paint hazards or have access to air conditioning to
lessen exposure to air pollution. These residents cannot
afford to relocate their families to other communities. In
addition, language and cultural barriers may interfere with
receiving information about health risks related to
environment exposures. Signs posted regarding
hazardous materials may be written in a technical
language which is difficult to understand in English. These
warnings cannot be understood and are ignored by non-
English speaking or reading residents and by children of all
ethnic backgrounds.
Because of outreach and education efforts made by
SSCHC and other health organizations, the community is
becoming much more aware of its surroundings. Families
are getting more useful information in a form they can
understand. They are learning what steps they can take to
help prevent or reduce pollution in their homes and
immediate neighborhoods.
For additional copies of this Fact Sheet and other
publications by EPA's Office of Environmental Justice, call
1-800-9626215.
community's behavior by making residents more aware of
their surroundings, but much still needs to be done.
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