Effectively advancing health equity and environmental justice requires addressing the underlying causes and impacts of factors in our social, economic, built, and natural environments that lead to cancer and associated disparities. To this end, states are establishing environmental justice task forces, commissions, and offices to support ongoing action to understand and redress the unjust human health and environmental impacts of their programs and policies, as well as to proactively advance environmental justice.  Central to these efforts are tools to strengthen public participation in the regulatory, permitting and compliance processes. 

Use the resources below help to your state cancer coalition identify environmental justice activities that could be leveraged in your cancer risk reduction planning:

• The U.S. EPA is investing significant resources in environmental justice throughout the country and has provided a list of ongoing activities in its regions, which can be accessed here.

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) issued a report on official state and federal environmental justice efforts. Their inventory of examples can be used for each individual state working on his issue. The report provides concrete examples of actions that states, and their cancer coalitions, can take to move their goals forward.