Environmental Justice
Courses tagged with "Environmental Justice"
Alarmingly, as much as 50% of all plastic products produced (380 million tonnes annually) are only used once, and only 9% of plastics are recycled globally. Join the ANHE Practice Forum for this timely webinar, “Reducing Plastic Use in the Health Sector and Beyond." This webinar focuses on how nurses can engage at the health systems, community, and advocacy levels to help reduce plastic pollution in the health sector and beyond. We also discuss the opportunities available for nurses from various practice settings to support initiatives and activities aimed at reducing plastic pollution.
The ANHE Practice Forum presents the webinar “Medical Waste Incineration, Impact on Human Health, and Opportunities for Nursing Action.” In the United States (US), the number of operating medical waste incinerators has declined greatly, from more than 6,200 in 1988 to 33 in 2013. Remaining medical waste incinerators have been linked to a range of adverse health effects and environmental justice concerns. Featuring speakers Greg Sawtell, Carlos Sanchez, Deanna Benner, and Jeremy Greene, this webinar provides an overview of the health impacts of medical waste incineration and discusses opportunities for nursing action. We hear from members of the Curtis Bay Community Land Trust, a group that is creating communications with hospital systems that transport waste to Curtis Bay medical waste incinerator (the largest medical waste incinerator in the US!) and health professionals who are taking action on medical waste incineration at their hospital.
Join the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) for an overview of PFAS, human health impacts from PFAS, and actionable steps to reduce PFAS exposure.
Speakers include Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, Stephanie Schweickert, Environmental Health Campaigns Manager of North Carolina Conservation Network and Dr. Katie Huffling, Executive Director of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE).
ANHE shares our recently released PFAS Toolkit which provides guidance on how health care providers can educate patients, perform risk assessments and provide practical clinical guidance. Our speakers also share current opportunities for engagement.
In this seminar, we introduce a new program that addresses climate, health and equity, Green Cars for Kids. This Florida-based nonprofit works to create a world where every child and pregnant person reaches their full health potential unhampered by transportation barriers. Our program coordinates transportation for low-income expectant mothers and children to healthcare visits using electric vehicles. The goals of the program are to improve the health of pregnant women and children by breaking down transportation barriers. By using electric vehicles, we contribute to reducing air pollution and carbon emissions that impact the health of frontline communities most.
This webinar presents information on noise as a public health hazard. It describes sources of noise, the physiological mechanisms it activates in the body, and its contributions to numerous diseases, health problems, and learning disorders. We summarize the results of numerous studies in the US and around the world documenting these effects of noise. We also discuss noise exposure as an environmental justice issue; low income and minority populations are disproportionately affected by noise due to road, train, and air traffic, as well as nearby industrial areas, predisposing them to poorer health and learning outcomes. The webinar concludes with a discussion of actions to be taken to reduce noise exposures, in order to prevent disease and promote health.
Historic investments made possible through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), present an opportunity to make lasting, positive health outcomes for all Americans. The Inflation Reduction Act offers incentives for businesses, school districts, governments, and health systems to transition to zero-emission vehicles and renewable energy. This webinar will provide examples of programs implemented through IRA funding, specifically relating to electric school buses and clean energy programs in health systems.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) together represent the largest investment in climate resilience in the nation's history and are providing much-needed resources to communities across the country. The IRA alone delivers nearly $400 billion in federal investments to rapidly accelerate the transition toward zero-emission vehicles, reduce climate pollution and carbon emissions, improve air quality, and strengthen communities. These historic investments present an opportunity to make lasting, positive health outcomes for all Americans. This webinar provides an overview of how climate investments improve health outcomes, examples of local benefits to communities, and opportunities for nurses to promote implementation at a state and local level.
In this webinar, our expert panel addresses how extreme heat impacts health and our healthcare system, explores the burden on the communities most at risk, and discusses the recently released OSHA heat standards. We also share advocacy opportunities and resources for health organizations and individual health professionals to engage in this important work.
In celebration of Labor Day, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments hosted a special webinar event, Just Transition as a Health, Climate, and Workers Rights Solution: Lessons from the Labor Movement, on September 6th, 2022 at 3 - 4 pm ET/12 - 1 pm PT. The urgency of the climate crisis is creating a need to swiftly transition in an equitable way to clean and renewable energy to limit climate impacts. Doing so at the pace required calls for a just transition - a plan to move the economy away from its current extractive, fossil-fuel reliance to one that is robust and sustainable and places the health of people, workers, communities, and the planet as its priority.
On this webinar, speakers from the Labor Network for Sustainability share more information about their recent work around just transition in California and nationwide. This will include an overview of the Young Worker Listening Project, a survey and interview process of workers across economic sectors who have been mobilizing their co-workers, pushing their union locals, and showing up in their communities to take action at the intersection of workers’ rights and the climate crisis. Complete the webinar to learn more about how nurses can support a just transition framework and build and strengthen relationships among the labor, climate, and environmental justice movements as they engage in climate solutions.
This seminar, jointly hosted by ANHE and the Georgia Nurses Association, explores the practical health impacts of climate change. Our first panelist, Roxana Chicas, defines the scope of the problems caused by climate change. It brings economic distress, threatens mental health, and disproportionately affects communities of color. In health, it disrupts healthcare-related supply chains. LaShea Haynes, our second panelist, elaborates on the unique position of low-income and marginalized communities in the intersection of health and climate. In particular, she stresses that we must reach out directly to these communities, as opposed to relying on assumptions of their needs. Our third panelist, Cary Ritzler, discusses clean energy systems and relevant legislation that may promote or threaten them. She stresses the individual's role in informing their community and engaging with their elected leaders. At the end of the seminar, the panelists respond to a few questions.
The Alliance of Nurses for Health Environments hosts a special launch event of the “Global Nurse Agenda for Climate Justice” ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). Climate justice has become a driving force for innovation in science and is at the forefront of the environmental justice movement and nurses are in a key position to advance climate justice in collaboration with the communities we practice in. In the development of this agenda, nursing organizations around the world have gathered together to stimulate a global dialogue on climate justice, center marginalized voices in climate justice decision making, and collaborate through research, education, and practice to advance climate justice action globally. On this webinar, speakers share more information about the Agenda, how nurses are collaborating on a global scale, and their stories at the intersection of climate justice, health, and nursing.
In November 2021, EPA and the Army Corps announced a proposed rule that would put back into place the pre-2015 definition of “waters of the US,” updated to reflect Supreme Court decisions. This would replace the Dirty Water Rule, the previous administration’s definition of “waters of the US,” which was invalidated by two federal courts, until the Biden Administration creates a new, durable rule. We encourage nurses to consider weighing in on the importance of EPA moving swiftly to this second step to create strong, long-lasting protections for our water resources across the country. Our speakers in this seminar provide an overview on the state of clean water in the United States and the most pressing health-related concerns. They also discuss upcoming advocacy opportunities that will be critical for nurses to engage in, including submitting comments to the US Environmental Protection Agency to call for strong clean water protections.
Dr. Vera presents on foundational concepts of the determinants of planetary health from an Indigenous perspective and her subsequent work in Aotearoa New Zealand studying Māori and Indigenous women's experiences of embodiment on Land as a path to healing and Indigenous (well)being.
Including local environmental knowledge within historically marginalized communities is central to achieving environmental justice, yet prevailing data collection and analysis methods often fail to recognize discourses rejecting mainstream environmental knowledge. In this presentation, Dr. Evans-Agnew describes the methods and outcomes of a pop-up booth and balloting project in the Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest, USA.
Life expectancy can differ by as much as 20 years for people living in different neighborhoods of the same city. Age-related chronic disease outcomes also differ greatly by place, with residents of more affluent neighborhoods living longer, healthier lives. Frequently, high deprivation neighborhoods are majority-minority. However, the biological pathways for how race, place, and health intersect - culminating in health disparities and shorter life expectancy - have not been well examined. In this presentation, Dr. Jackson discusses multiple research studies that have explored race, neighborhood deprivation, and epigenetic age acceleration as antecedents for disparities in chronic musculoskeletal pain outcomes. Pamela Jackson, PhD, RN, MLT(ASCP)BB is a nurse scientist and an Assistant Professor in the department of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Jackson’s research focuses on the influence of neighborhood-level environmental exposures on the pace of biological aging. Jackson is particularly interested in the adverse health impacts of climate change on socioeconomically vulnerable communities and using community-engaged approaches to examine the intersection of climate and health. Dr. Jackson has an extensive 20+ year history working in healthcare systems and grew up in socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods - bringing inherent ties and shared perspective with communities' environmental concerns. Jackson was selected as a member of the 2023 cohort of the NIH/NIEHS Environmental Health Research Institute for Nurse and Clinician Scientists. Her work has resulted in multiple peer-reviewed publications; local, state, and national conference presentations; and grant funding from NIH/NIA.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, in 2020, COVID-associated healthcare waste alone was 3.4 kg per person per day globally. It was about 2.5 kg per bed per day in developing countries. In this seminar, Dr. Laura Jean Ridge discusses her research on the occupational health of healthcare workers in West Africa, particularly in Liberia and Ghana. Dr. Ridge is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati's College of Nursing. She has received funding from the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety and was a member of the 2023 cohort of the Environmental Health Research Institute for Nurse and Clinician Scientists™. Dr. Ridge is a nurse practitioner who earned her Master's in Adult Primary Care from Columbia University (2010). She provided primary and HIV-oriented care in New York City for five years before her PhD at New York University.
Dr. Claire Richards shares her program of research on energy insecurity and its relationship to climate breakdown. Dr. Richards then discusses different approaches to describing and addressing co-occurring power outages, wildfire, and extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest.
A majority of current climate-related efforts focus on mitigating emissions. However, even if we were to cease global greenhouse gas emissions today, we would still deal with the climate change we have already committed to. Recent disasters have shown the physical, emotional, social, and financial devastation of climate change-related events. Repeatedly, those affected appear to be underprepared and dependent on reaction and recovery from external resources that are increasingly overburdened. Adaptation is the preparation and proactive approach and is a needed strategy to address climate change. Hear from Dr. Kent Boyd about his path to becoming a climate adaptation and resilience expert and learn about adaptation strategies, such as resilience hubs.
This webinar is part 10 of the series Nursing on the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis: Education for Action, developed through a collaboration between the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, Nursing - Climate Resources for Health Education, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, the Canadian Association of Nurses for the Environment, and Climate Action Nurses. This presentation discusses the intersection of climate change and health equity, focusing on the disproportionate impacts of climate-related health threats on vulnerable populations and strategies for advancing climate and environmental justice.
This webinar is part 9 of the series Nursing on the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis: Education for Action, developed through a collaboration between the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, Nursing - Climate Resources for Health Education, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, the Canadian Association of Nurses for the Environment, and Climate Action Nurses. This presentation discusses climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience strategies. Nurses will learn how healthcare systems can reduce their greenhouse gas footprint and adapt to changing climate conditions.