Improving Health Outcomes at the Community Level

This webinar is part of a series organized by CHE and the Boston University Superfund Research Program (BUSRP). Learn more about the CHE-BUSRP Partnership.

Disproportionate COVID-19 disease rates in people of color and ethnic minorities have highlighted the need to address the underlying factors, many of which have been perpetuated in our approach to health risk assessment. Wendy Heiger-Bernays, PhD, Molly Kile, ScD, and Sydelle N. Harrison, MPH, discussed the current EPA risk assessment methodology which lacks consideration of background hazardous exposures and “underlying health conditions” afflicting large segments of the population as well as the lack of cross-cultural perspectives. Beginning with a brief description of the current approach to risk assessment, they outlined and defined the gaps that need to be filled in order to protect vulnerable, environmental justice communities. They then focused on a Tribal Nation experience, where speakers share important considerations in the calculations of risk as well as the Tribal perspective of “health” – the two elements that come together and often clash in the traditional EPA risk assessment.

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