Social Justice and Environmental Justice Is an Easy Blend For Us: You Can’t Have One Without the Other—An Interview With CEEJ

Author(s):  
John Sullivan ◽  
Katelyn Parady

Reverend James Black and his daughter, Joi Black-Tate, are key members of the Center for Environmental and Economic Justice team that served as a community hub for risk dissemination and clinical cohort management during the Gulf Coast Health Alliance: Health risks related to the Macondo Spill effort to characterize risk from the Deepwater Horizon well explosion and crude oil spill. In this interview, Reverend James Black and Ms. Black-Tate discuss how their community in Biloxi, Mississippi, was impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and connect this catastrophe to their previous experiences with collaborative Environmental Protection Agency projects measuring dioxin in “Back Bay Biloxi” and toxic chemical seepage from the Keesler Air Force Base. They elaborate on why they view their organization’s commitment to environmental justice as a natural outgrowth of the struggle for African-American civil rights and social justice in Mississippi and share reflections on the spiritual core of their relationship to community, social change, health, and the natural world.

Author(s):  
John Sullivan ◽  
Katelyn Parady

In this interview, Sharon and David Gauthe of Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing (Thibodaux, Louisiana) document their personal experiences with adverse health outcomes that seem connected with oil spill exposures and explain their community organizing model based on interfaith collaboration and informed by the methodology and practice values of social work. They also comment on their conceptual framework of the entire Gulf Coast as a regional environmental justice zone, for which they received a Guardian of the Gulf Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Goldman ◽  
John A. Kaufman ◽  
J. Danielle Sharpe ◽  
Amy F. Wolkin ◽  
Matthew O. Gribble

Introduction: In April 2010, a fatal explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in the largest accidental marine oil spill in history. This research describes the association of oil exposure with anxiety after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and evaluates effect modification by self-mastery, emotional support, and cleanup participation. Methods: To assess the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted the Gulf States Population Survey, a random-digit-dial telephone cross-sectional survey completed between December 2010 and December 2011 with 38,361 responses in four different Gulf Coast states­: Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. Anxiety severity was measured using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder symptom inventory. We used Tobit regression to model underlying anxiety as a function of oil exposure and hypothesized effect modifiers, adjusting for socio-demographics. Results: Latent anxiety was higher among those directly exposed to oil than among those who were not directly exposed to oil in confounder-adjusted models (β=2.84, 95% CI: 0.78, 4.91). Among individuals exposed to oil, there was no significant interaction between participating in cleanup activities and emotional support for anxiety ( P=0.16). However, among those directly exposed to oil, in confounder-adjusted models, participation in oil spill cleanup activities was associated with lower latent anxiety (β=-3.50, 95% CI: -6.10, -0.90). Conclusion: Oil contact was associated with greater anxiety, but this association appeared to be mitigated by cleanup participation.


Author(s):  
Daniel Jackson ◽  
Meng Huang ◽  
Harshica Fernando ◽  
Ghulam Ansari ◽  
Marilyn Howarth ◽  
...  

This article provides a description of the rationale and processes adopted by the Gulf Coast Health Alliance: Health Risks related to the Macondo Spill consortium to evaluate and communicate the risk of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in seafood over several years following the Deepwater Horizon disaster and subsequent oil spill. We examined gaps in knowledge associated with PAH toxicity following exposure to petrogenic (oil-derived) PAHs by studying the metabolic fate of PAHs and their potential toxicity using sophisticated analytical methods. Using the data generated, we developed a risk communication strategy designed to meet the needs of the stakeholder communities including a consumption guideline calculator, a web-based tool to reconcile seafood consumption with risk of adverse health effects.


2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin V. Melosi

The emergence of the environmental justice movement in the 1980s has stimulated much debate on the extent to which race and class have been or should become central concerns of modern environmentalism. Leaders in the environmental justice movement have charged that mainstream environmental organizations and, in turn, environmental policy have demonstrated a greater concern for preserving wilderness and animal habitats than addressing health hazards of humans, especially those living in cities; have embraced a “Save the Earth” perspective at the expense of saving people's lives and protecting their homes and backyards. Some advocates of environmental justice have gone so far as to dissociate their movement from American environmentalism altogether, rather identifying with a broader social justice heritage as imbedded in civil rights activities of the 1950s and 1960s.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 3639-3649 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Hayworth ◽  
T. P. Clement ◽  
J. F. Valentine

Abstract. From mid June 2010 to early August 2010, the white sandy beaches along Alabama's Gulf coast were inundated with crude oil discharged from the Deepwater Horizon well. The long-term consequences of this environmental catastrophe are still unfolding. Although BP has attempted to clean up some of these beaches, there still exist many unanswered questions regarding the physical, chemical, and ecological state of the oil contaminated beach system. In this paper, we present our understanding of what is known and known to be unknown with regard to the current state of Alabama's beaches in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Motivated by our observations of the evolving distribution of oil in Alabama's beaches and BP's clean-up activities, we offer our thoughts on the lessons learned from this oil spill disaster.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 74
Author(s):  
Megha Patel ◽  
Leia Saltzman ◽  
Regardt Ferreira ◽  
Amy Lesen

The authors wish to make the following change to their paper (Patel et al. 2018). [...]


Author(s):  
John Sullivan ◽  
Beth Rosenberg

In this interview, Mr. Nguyen, Gulf Coast Health Alliance: Health risks related to the Macondo Spill Vietnamese community project hub manager (D’Iberville, Mississippi), describes his community’s cultural and financial difficulties finding adequate avenues for healthcare and wellness information before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He comments extensively on how the project’s clinical component in tandem with the Affordable Care Act promoted transformational changes in access to healthcare for his community and comments on generational shifts within the community in terms of language marginalization, its relationship to the pace of acculturation, and the allure of commercial fishing as a livelihood and a career.


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