Objective: How to address environmental racism to reduce health inequities.

A key feature in many state comprehensive cancer control plans is a focus on health equity and health disparities. Exposures in workplaces and community environments can be key drivers of disparities in cancer risk. Systemic racism in zoning and other city planning/development policies has led to a concentration of hazardous facilities, such as incinerators, landfills, and industrial plants that disproportionately burden communities comprised of marginalized racial/ethnic, low-income, immigrant/refugee and indigenous populations. Health equity cannot be achieved when particular communities or occupational groups are disproportionately exposed to hazardous substances and associated cancer risks.

Environmental injustice is strongly linked to health inequity. The concept of environmental justice, and tools and strategies to address it in state comprehensive cancer control plans is reviewed in this Module.