Environmental health burdens of poor Asian, Native American, African American and Hispanic communities featured at special session of So...( The National Institute of Environment...)

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences will sponsor a workshop from noon to 1:30 p.m. March 29 at the annual Society of Toxicology meeting providing an orientation on environmental justice and health disparities issues, an overview of existing research, communication and research efforts, and an opportunity for in-depth discussion of issues. The session will be in room 135 of the Moscone Convention Center.

Case studies of successful community-university interactions and research partnerships will be highlighted, and elements essential for development of such collaborations will be presented.

Exposure to environmental and occupational hazards falls mostly on low income communities and communities of color and their working people. The workshop is aimed at people interested in translating this observation, as well as recent basic research and epidemiology, into public health action among community groups, including Hispanics, African Americans, Laotians and Native Americans.

The workshop features NIEHS Director Kenneth Olden; Peggy Shepard, executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action; Peggy Saika, former executive director of the Asian-Pacific Environmental Network; Carlos Porras, executive director of Communities for a Better Environment; Bob Lynch Univ. Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; Dr. Don Mattison, medical director of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation; Dr. James Krieger of the Seattle/King County Department of Public Health. Allen Dearry of NIEHS will moderate.

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Contact: Bill Grigg
grigg@niehs.nih.gov
301-496-3512
NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
25-Feb-2001