Environmental justice: building a unified vision of health and the environment

The assorted and multidimensional concerns that give rise to the issue of environmental justice have proved to be intellectually daunting and highly resistant to positive change. Low-income, people of color, and tribal communities confronting environmental stressors are beset by stressors in both the physical and social environments. For this reason, while the bifurcation of the public health and environmental fields taking place over the past several decades has yielded generally negative impacts in areas of public health, environment, and planning, the consequences for low-income and disadvantaged communities have been especially grievous. This commentary builds on the recent Institute of Medicine workshop titled "Rebuilding the Unity of Health and the Environment: A New Vision of Environmental Health for the 21st Century." The workshop organizers posited that only by thinking about environmental health on multiple levels will it be possible to merge various strategies to protect both the environment and health. In this commentary we examine how such a new vision of uniting public health and the environment can contribute to attaining environmental justice for all populations.