Professorial Lecturer Jalonne L. White-Newsome was one of the representatives from leading environmental organizations who spoke on a panel on environmental justice held at the Cannon House Office Building in December.
The briefing was sponsored by the Public Health Institute, in conjunction with the Congressional Progressive Caucus & Sustainable Energy and Environmental Coalition. The participants discussed ways in which African American, Latino, Asian Pacific Islanders and Native Americans continue to suffer from higher-than-average exposure to pollution more than 40 years after the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts were passed.
White-Newsome is a federal policy analyst for the nonprofit WE ACT For Environmental Justice (WE ACT) and advocates for stronger state and federal level policies that support equity and justice. She alerted her audience to several recent reports which show that dirty air disproportionately impacts certain communities.
White-Newsome highlighted a recent article that was published in the December 2014 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. The article focused on her hometown of Detroit, Michigan, and described how communities of color and those with low education, high poverty and unemployment may face greater health risks even if their air quality meets federal health standards.