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DIRECT FROM CDC ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Shine a Light on Environmental Justice Issues With the Environmental Justice Dashboard
Jena Losch, MPH
a light on injustices, make decisions, and be a foundation for community narratives and environmental justice initiatives and actions. Environmental Justice Dashboard Delivers Data for Your Community The EJ Dashboard allows users to enter their ZIP Code or county and obtain personalized data on environmental exposures, community characteristics, and health burden information (Figure 1). All of these topics are important factors in understanding and addressing envi- ronmental justice issues in a community. The EJ Dashboard is unique from other data tools because it considers health literacy and incorporates climate change and health outcome data. The bite, snack, meal approach to health communication was used to design the EJ Dashboard. It has easy to digest info- graphics (bites), alongside maps and con- textual information (snacks), that can lead to further research or use of more advanced tools (meals), such as the CDC Data Explorer (Figure 2). This method helps prevent infor- mation overload and it gets the right portion of information to the people who need it. Using the Environmental Justice Dashboard to Shine a Light on Environmental Justice The EJ Dashboard is a useful tool to identify community vulnerabilities, such as higher risk for adverse eects of climate change. The information can help inform city and state planning and better allocate resources and eorts to address those vulnerabilities. This information is important when preparing for potential natural disasters such as droughts, hurricanes, and floods. You can view data on
Editor’s Note: The National Environmental Health Association strives to provide up-to-date and relevant information on environmental health and to build partnerships in the profession. In pursuit of these goals, we feature this column on environmental health services from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in every issue of the Journal . In these columns, authors from CDC’s Water, Food, and Environmental Health Services Branch, as well as guest authors, will share tools, resources, and guidance for environmental health practitioners. The conclusions in these columns are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the ocial position of CDC. Jena Losch is a public health advisor at the CDC Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, part of National Center for Environmental Health. She has more than 10 years of experience working in environmental health and has special interest in health communication, improving access to health and environmental data, and improving data literacy.
W orking Toward Environ- mental Justice Through Improved Access to Data Some communities are facing environmental injustice—disproportionate burdens from environmental exposures, damaging land uses, psychosocial stressors, and historical and structural racism—that can be linked to short- and long-term health disparities. These communities are often composed of people from racial and ethnic minority groups and from communities with lower access to resources. Environmental justice can be achieved when everyone has the same degree of pro- tection from environmental and health hazards and equal representation in the decision-making process to have a healthy
environment. An important step toward achieving environmental justice is improving access to data and information that can be understood and used by communities facing environmental injustice and used by decision makers, environmental health practitioners, and health ocials to identify and address environmental injustices. A major part of achieving environmental justice is valuing, elevating, and amplifying the stories and lived experiences of people living in communities that face environmen- tal injustices—the qualitative side to environ- mental justice. The Environmental Justice (EJ) Dashboard from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is an impor- tant tool that looks at the quantitative side to environmental justice—using data to shine
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