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Strengthening Environmental Justice Research and Decision Making: A Symposium on the Science of Disproportionate Environmental Health Impacts Dear Symposium Participants, It is with great pleasure and excitement that we welcome you to Strengthening Environmental Justice Research and Decision Making: A Symposium on the Science of Disproportionate Environmental Health Impacts. For over a year we have worked to organize this symposium and to bring together a diverse set of expert panels, speakers, and participants, premised on the recognition that the issue of environmental justice and environmental health equity in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision making requires a broadening of the dialogue and the sources of scholarship, knowledge, and expertise that are brought to the table. Multiple factors, including social, political, psychosocial, economic, physical, chemical, and biological determinants, contribute to disproportionate human health or environmental impacts. Therefore, diverse expertise, including environmental public health scientists, environmental and social epidemiologists, medical anthropologists, geographers, biostatisticians, population health scientists, toxicologists, social scientists, policy analysts, and community experts with interests in media-specific pollution, disparities in environmental disease burdens, children’s environmental health, environmental justice, etc., are needed at the table to weave their perspectives together to better inform environmental health policy and environmental regulatory decision making to achieve environmental justice and environmental health equity. For this Symposium we are focused on EPA’s regulatory decision making because the regulatory development process at EPA is currently undergoing significant change to assure that all decisions incorporate environmental justice. The Symposium is purposed to lay the groundwork for developing a systematic and scientifically defensible approach for incorporating environmental justice concerns into EPA’s decision-making process. Your input during this Symposium will help: Identify opportunities to modify EPA’s analytical frameworks to incorporate consideration of disproportionate impacts. Inform the collection of data and development of analytical methods and conceptual models for assessing and incorporating disproportionate impacts into decision making. Inform activities to enhance the regulatory development process, including meaningful participation of stakeholders. The topic of incorporating environmental justice concerns in regulatory decision making is not new. In fact, in March 1990, the participants in the Conference on Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards at the University of Michigan wrote a letter to the heads of the Department of Health and Human Services, EPA, and the Council on Environmental Quality to discuss the following, among other recommendations, “require, on a demonstration basis, that racial and socioeconomic equity considerations be included in Regulatory Impact Assessments...and include a racial and socioeconomic dimension in geographic studies of environmental risk.” That memo resulted in a meeting with then-EPA Administrator, William K. Reilly. Administrator Reilly subsequently created the Environmental Equity Workgroup, a precursor event to the creation of EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice. We hope that the discussions at this Symposium lead to environmental justice and equity considerations in regulatory decision-making becoming standard practice. The support and contributions of many people made this Symposium possible. We would like to thank all the Symposium Sponsors (see Sponsors tab), members of the Symposium Planning Committee (see Planning Committee tab) and our Contributing Experts (see Contributing Experts tab). We also would like to thank the individuals who have worked behind to scenes to ensure the success of the Symposium and all other related efforts. Specifically, we thank Tina Conley, with the National Center for Environmental Research (NCER) in ORD, and Maria Smith, with The Scientific Consulting Group, Inc., for leading the meeting logistics planning and execution. We thank Deborah Weinstock, with MDB Inc., for her contributions to meeting logistics, and Arlene Rosenbaum, with ICF International, and Michael Callahan, with MDB, Inc., for coordinating the technical papers. We would like to especially thank the following individuals for coordinating travel arrangements: Stella Spyropoulos, Executive Assistant in NCER; Betty Jo Miller, Office of Administrative and Research Support (OARS) Travel Division Director in ORD; Susan Pearce, OARS, Travel Management Division RTP Team Lead, ORD; Ann Fisher-Durrah, travel coordinator with the Office of Children’s Health Protection; Kelly Maguire and Natalie Durham with the EPA National Center for Environmental Economics; Sherry Baron with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; and Liam O’Fallon and Kate Ryan with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. On behalf of the Symposium Planning Committee, we wish you a successful meeting and constructive dialogue, Devon Payne-Sturges, Dr.P.H. Onyemaechi Nweke, Dr.P.H. Assistant Center Director for Human Health Physical Scientist National Center for Environmental Research Office of Environmental Justice EPA EPA Strengthening Environmental Justice Research and Decision Making: A Symposium on the Science of Disproportionate Environmental Health Impacts March 17 - 19, 2010 Walter E. Washington Convention Center Washington, DC AGENDA March 17, 2010 7:30 – 8:30 a.m. Registration 8:30 – 8:50 a.m. Opening and Welcome Session (Room 151AB) Paul Anastas, Assistant Administrator, Office of Research and Development, EPA Speakers: Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator, EPA introduced by Peggy Shepard, Executive Director, WeACT 8:50 – 10:45 a.m. Plenary 1: Overarching Issues for Environmental Justice—Community Perspectives (Room 151AB) Master of Ceremonies: Brian Smedley, Vice President and Director, Health Policy and Moderator Institute, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Keynote Speaker: Diane Takvorian, Executive Director, Environmental Health Coalition Panel Speakers: Gary R. Grant, Executive Director, Concerned Citizens of Tillery Monique Harden, Co-Director and Attorney, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights Romel Pascual, Director of Environment, Office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa James Ransom, Chief, St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council Mathy Stanislaus, Assistant Administrator, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, EPA 10:45 – 11:00 a.m. Break 11:00 – 11:30 a.m. Overview/Purpose of the Symposium (Room 151AB) Master of Ceremonies: Brian Smedley, Vice President and Director, Health Policy Institute, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies o Review impetus for the symposium o Outline focal issues for the symposium and expectations 11:30 – 1:00 p.m. Luncheon Featuring Keynote Speaker (Room 147AB) Race, Place, and Environmental Justice: Looking Back, Looking Forward Manuel Pastor, Professor, University of Southern California Sponsored by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies supported by a generous grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation March 17, 2010 (continued) 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Concurrent Breakout Sessions State-of-the-Science Commissioned Paper Panel: Proximity (Room 150A) Purpose: To explore and define how proximity to environmental health hazards and their sources contributes to disparities in environmental health impacts among ethnic and racial minority and disadvantaged populations and discuss opportunities to incorporate this information into the environmental policy decision-making process. Session Chair/Speaker: Juliana Maantay, Professor, Department of Environmental, Geographic and Geological Sciences, Lehman College, The City University of New York Speakers: Jayajit Chakraborty, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of South Florida Jean Brender, Associate Dean for Research and Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Texas A&M University Discussants: Roger Kim, Executive Director, Asian Pacific Environmental Network Peter Langlois, Senior Epidemiologist, Texas Department of State Health Services State-of-the-Science Commissioned Paper Panel: Multiple and Cumulative Impacts/Effects (Room 150B) Purpose: To explore the contribution of exposure to multiple and cumulative environmental stressors to adverse environmental and health impacts, and also to disparities in environmental health impacts among ethnic and racial minority and disadvantaged populations and discuss opportunities to incorporate this information into the environmental policy decision-making process. Session Chair/Speaker: Stephen H. Linder, School of Public Health, University of Texas Speakers: Amy D. Kyle, Associate Professor, Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley Gary Ginsberg, Toxicologist, Division of Environmental Epidemiology and Occupational Health, Connecticut Department of Public Health Discussants: James Ransom, Chief, St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council Rita Schoeny, Office of Science and Technology, Office of Water, EPA 2 March 17, 2010 (continued) 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Concurrent Breakout Sessions (continued) State-of-the-Science Commissioned Paper Panel: Susceptibility and Vulnerability (Room 152A) Purpose: To explore the relationship between vulnerability/susceptibility factors (including social factors) and disparities in environmental