United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Enforcement
and Compliance
Assurance (2201 A)
EPA/300-F-04-001a
August 2004
Office of Environmental Justice (OE J)
INVIROMMINfAl IDMK'I
Si"
Environmental Justice
Fact Sheet
Interagency Working Group
Health Disparities Task Force
BACKGROUND
Executive Order 12898, entitled "Federal Actions to
Address Environmental Justice in Minority
Populations and Low-Income Populations," issued
February 11, 1994, focuses federal attention on the
environmental and human health conditions of
minority populations, low-income populations, and
tribal populations with the goal of achieving
environmental protection for all communities. One
provision of Executive Order 12898 established an
Interagency Working Group (IWG) on
Environmental Justice.
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaliustice/interage
ncv/index.html.
HEALTH DISPARITIES TASK FORCE
In October 2002, the IWG created the
Health Disparities Task Force to identify and work
to address many of the issues which pertain to
concerns over both health disparities and
environmental justice. The Task Force is working
to develop partnerships, through the leadership of
federal entities, between agencies, and
organizations working to eliminate health
disparities and/or address environmental justice. It
is clear that many of the populations which suffer
health disparities are also facing other
environmental justice issues.
On May 28-29, 2003, the Task Force
sponsored the "Building Healthy Environments to
Eliminate Health Disparities" symposium in
Washington, D.C. This Symposium brought
together for the first time, senior-level Federal
government employees from various agencies to
explore the intersection between health disparities
and environmental justice and the ways in which
Federal agencies could develop proactive,
comprehensive and integrated strategies to build
healthy environments in communities suffering
from health disparities. The symposium built on the
momentum created by the Department of Health
and Human Services' (HHS) "National Leadership
Summit on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic
Disparities in Health" held in July 2002. This
symposium is the first step in a series of meetings to
be organized to mobilize strong partnerships within
HHS and with the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and other Federal agencies. Over
100 individuals from over 12 different agencies
participated. The Symposium report will be issued
in early 2004 and will be posted on both the HHS
Office of Minority Health and the EPA Office of
Environmental Justice web pages.
In the continuing series of these IWG Health
Disparities Task Force symposiums, a November
2004 symposium is planned in collaboration with
the American Public Health Association (APHA).
At the APHA 2004 annual conference in
Washington, DC, with the theme of "Public Health
and the Environment," the Task Force will hold a 1
l/2 day meeting on environmental justice and health
disparities. The 2004 symposium grows out of the
commitment by the Task Force to hold a
symposium for impacted communities and public
health practitioners.
Contacts:
Charles Lee, EPA/OEJ, (Lee.Charles@epa.gov)
Daniel Gogal, EPA/OEJ, (Gogal.Danny@epa.gov)
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