Too many low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately impacted by toxic chemical exposure. Simply because of where they live, work, and play.
Children and families in these communities can be exposed to toxic chemicals in the air or in the water, or coming up through the soil in their home. They can be exposed on the playground, at home, or in school because their communities are located near refineries, power plants, pumpjacks, petrochemical plants, factories, and other industrial facilities. These families must be protected.
EPA has proposed a plan to evaluate chemical exposures and risks to communities on the fence lines of industrial manufacturing or disposal facilities. This plan is a positive step, but ultimately, it is a piecemeal approach to the complex problem of toxic chemical exposure.
EPA must face the reality that fence-line communities often deal with exposures from more than one source. A parent may live near a polluting facility and also work in one. Neighborhoods can be situated near a whole cluster of polluting facilities, not just one.
Fence-line communities need EPA to comprehensively assess their chemical risks in order to reduce the disproportionate health harms and environmental injustices they experience.
Urge EPA to strengthen its method of analyzing fence-line risks to capture the real lived experience of these communities.