Socioeconomic and racial disparities in environmental health: Is risk assessment part of the problem or part of the solution?

The term "environmental justice" is a relatively recent addition to the lexicon of public health and risk-based decision making. Although it is currently a prominent public policy issue, there is no consensus-derived definition, nor is there general agreement about viable mechanisms for putting worthwhile social goals (e.g., fairness, equity, and justice) into operation. Nevertheless, the concept of environmental justice has focused attention on important questions of whether economically and politically disadvantaged communities bear a disproportionate burden of environmental pollution, and whether past environmental policies, programs and practices have been fair and equitable. Among individuals and organizations involved with issues of environmental justice there is a spectrum of strong and often contradictory convictions about the nature and role of risk assessment. Critics are convinced it is part of the problem and are inclined to see it as an ethically suspect, resource-intensive, elitist, never-ending process used to maintain the status quo. Advocates, on the other hand, contend that risk assessment is an essential policy and regulatory tool for identifying, evaluating, and resolving instances of environmental injustice, and that it provides a unifying conceptual framework and a common language for constructive dialogue on the issue. This article argues that, in practice, risk assessment has contributed to both the reality and the perception of environmental justice problems because of the overly narrow and restricted manner in which it has been applied. In principle, however, risk assessment is part of the solution to environment injustices because it provides a beneficial construct for framing key questions and fostering constructive debate about how to answer them. Well-designed research studies and high-quality risk assessments are necessary to define the dimensions of the problem, to understand the root causes, and to identify effective, efficient, and equitable solutions. Ultimately, attaining the goal of environmental justice depends on putting risk assessment principles into practice.