Chapter 10: Health Inequalities, Environmental Racism, and Environmental Justice

Nuremburg code

set of principles outlining how to ethically carry out research experiments as a result of the nuremberg trials after world war II

Food deserts

urban and rural low-income areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious foods

Environmental justice

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies."

Cumulative disadvantage perspective

Tendency of prior social problems to produce future ones that accumulate and undermine success

Environmental racism

The deliberate placement of polluting industries or activities in minority areas because those communities are less able or likely to fight the polluters

Weathering hypothesis

The idea that there is stress that comes with living in a race-conscious society and this causes disproportionate physiological deterioration

Hispanic Paradox

The surprising notion that, although low socioeconomic status (SES) usually correlates with poor health, this is not true for Hispanics in the United States. For example, when compared with the U.S. average low birth-weight (LBW) rate, Hispanic newborns are less often of low birth-weight

Tuskegee Syphilis study

medical equipment deliberately withheld to observe the effects on poor/black men; men were coerced, given syphilis, treated for "bad blood," under US Public Health Service; Legacy Committee for Bill Clinton to apologize publicly and redress the damages

Life-course perspective

socioeconomic disadvantages originating in childhood accumulate over the life course to especially disadvantage health in old age