A Living History: The Environmental Justice Health Alliance For Chemical Policy Reform

The Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) is a national network comprised of grassroots and advocacy environmental justice organizations located across the country that are built on the history of environmental and economic justice. EJHA affiliate groups primarily organized from the fence line of energy and chemical operations and “legacy sites” (sometimes called “fence-line or frontline communities”).Legacy sites refer to communities burdened by longstanding targeted and intentional structural and institutional racism, often including segregation by design and Jim Crow laws. Adding to these deep-seated disparities, high concentrations of hazardous and polluting facilities, incinerators for medical and chemical wastes and incinerators for the production of energy as well as chemical and municipal waste dumps have disproportionally made their way into these communities. These industrial operations and practices harm residents of these legacy sites on acute, chronic and intergenerational levels. These impacts affect virtually every aspect of what would otherwise be a safe, prosperous and healthy way of life.