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Earth Night

Senate Bill 1190

June 12, 2003

Good Morning Chairman Resor, Chairman Greene, and Members of the Committee. My name is Alba Cruz. I am the Executive Director of The Family Van and I represent the Massachusetts Public Health Association as the Chair of their Minority Health Section.

I am here to testify in favor of the environmental justice bills before your committee today, Senate bills 1190 and 1271, as well as House bill 2112. These bills are an important step toward alleviating many of the health problems we see in our communities, particularly related to respiratory illnesses such as asthma and allergies.

As indicated in the January report by Northeastern University professor Daniel Faber and other reports and studies, communities of color and low-income communities are most likely to have polluting facilities and uses such as incinerators, landfills, and toxic chemicals in their neighborhoods. Exposure to these environmental problems poses health risks that can predispose, trigger and exacerbate more serious health problems for individuals who reside nearby. The wellbeing and livelihood of these individuals is threatened simply by virtue of the predominantly low-income neighborhoods where they reside and the lack of resources available to these neighborhoods to contend with these environmental injustices.

These reports highlight what many of us already know, especially those of us working with minority communities in and around Massachusetts and Boston on a daily basis. That is, that there are inherent inequities that low income and minority families and individuals are exposed to because of their environments and in turn their poverty.

This is the most salient point that needs to be contended with here. We as public health professionals with the potential to voice these concerns at a level that can and should influence policy need to take these issues on as a priority in our advocacy agendas.

It is our responsibility to engage the communities we serve to ensure that they advocate for themselves as well in promoting these bills as a vehicle to remedy the ongoing threat that this environmental injustice promotes in their communities.

Passing these bills would effectuate the environmental changes necessary that are beyond an individual's control. Their passage is necessary, given the current political atmosphere which has forced a change in our public health mantra to one of self-care, and self health actualization through proper diet and exercise aimed at reducing poor health outcomes such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. The health risks and health problems posed by these environmental injustices unlike the latter cannot be attributed to unhealthy life choices but rather to unnecessarily toxic exposures that should be monitored and regulated by the government.

These families and individuals by virtue of their poverty oftentimes cannot choose the neighborhoods they reside in. This by no means should make them vulnerable to unnecessary exposures that have the potential to harm their health and well being. Not passing these bills is not only inequitable but also ultimately costly and ineffective considering the lost productivity and increased health care costs caused by these environmental injustices.

Thank you for your time. I hope that the Committee will send an environmental justice bill to the full legislature for a vote soon.

Sincerely,

Alba Cruz
Executive Director
The Family Van