By: Ruth Rodriguez, Communications Intern Nearly 600 federal and state prisons are within 3 miles of a Superfund site in the United States. Over 100 are within 1 mile. These numbers are staggering. To make matters worse, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world with 655 incarcerated per 100,000. Further, people of color are overrepresented in the incarcerated population, and are more likely to live near toxic waste sites.  The siting of prisons is an environmental injustice. These facilities are built next to mines, landfills, and

By: Leia Ku Cheng Yee, Communications and Development Intern As we enter the month of March, we mark one year of wrestling with the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In regards to the impacts of the pandemic, it comes to no surprise, that the minority, impoverished groups are the most negatively affected. One good thing that came out from the pandemic is that it has spotlighted the societal issue of the disproportionate amount of low-income population that live in contaminated areas. It has made these communities more visible than

By: Judith Eppele, Community Organizing Intern Growing up in a household with divorced parents, I quickly realized how important communication was for creating and sustaining strong relationships. This notion is the backbone of CHEJ, of which I’ve experienced firsthand through my time as an intern. Since I’m a community organizing intern specifically, I’ve found that having good communication with the different community groups we work with is incredibly important. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that maintaining this good communication is one of the most important parts

By: Evelyn Zavala, Science Intern I was drawn to working with CHEJ because of their work with communities across the United States of diverse backgrounds, socio-economic status, ethnicities, geographical locations, and education. CHEJ is where the community meets science, environment, health, and justice. Recently we have seen how vital this relationship really is. While the snowstorms of 2021 are seen across the country, Texas has been hit hard. Within Texas, minority and marginalized communities were hit even worse.  Social Determinants of Health are described as the conditions in the environment

By: Kristen Millstein, Communications Intern In the summer of 2016, I traveled to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. I was in high school and had not spent significant time outside my California bubble. Pine Ridge was like a different world. While there, I learned from tribal leaders about the continual violation of their sovereignty and the trauma caused by a history of massacres and loss of sacred land. At the time, I looked at these atrocities through the lens of colonization. It has only been since I joined

By Mihir Vohra, Research Associate In the fight to end our reliance on fossil fuels, most of the focus has been on the dangers of carbon dioxide emissions, but other emissions are harmful as well. Particulate matter (PM) is a type of air pollution made up of a mixture of dust, chemicals, and liquid droplets and gets released into the air through fossil fuel combustion. When inhaled, PM enters the lungs and bloodstream, exacerbating existing respiratory tract illnesses and causing lung disease, heart disease, and lung cancer. Very small PM