Using Science and Organizing to Advance Public Health Policy

The Community Guide to Cumulative Impacts explains how to identify and quantify the combined effects of multiple pollutants and social stressors on public health. It details existing state and city laws in the US that allow regulators to deny permits based on cumulative impacts and provides a framework for community organizing, including drafting model legislation and using environmental justice mapping tools.

• Cumulative impacts are defined as the combined effect of chemical stressors (pollutants linked to cancer or developmental harm) and non-chemical stressors (social determinants of health such as poor housing and lack of healthcare) on a community's well-being.
• Traditional environmental laws often fail because they evaluate chemicals or facilities in isolation, whereas real-world exposure involves multiple chemicals from various pathways, including home products, local polluting facilities, and legacy pollution.
• Systemic racism and historical policies, such as 1930s 'redlining', have disproportionately situated pollution sources near communities of color and low-income populations, exacerbating cumulative impacts.
• Several US states have enacted laws requiring cumulative impact assessments to limit, deny, or issue environmental permits, including Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York.
• Decisionmaking based on cumulative impacts generally follows two models: equity-based decisions, which limit pollution if a community's stressors are already higher than other areas, and threshold-based decisions, which compare impacts against a specific level of potential harm.
• Mapping tools like the EPA EJ Screen, the CDC Environmental Justice Index, and the White House Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool help visualize stressors, though they may underestimate harm by averaging data over areas larger than the impacted community.
• The proposed A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice For All Act would mandate that permitting under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act consider cumulative impacts and strengthen public participation requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act.
• Effective community organizing to advance these policies involves 'power mapping' to identify allies and opponents, developing 'inside-outside' strategies to pressure decisionmakers, and using lived experience as subject-matter expertise in public testimony.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2024). Using Science and Organizing to Advance Public Health Policy. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2024-10/Cumulative%20Impacts%20Guide_Eng.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Using Science and Organizing to Advance Public Health Policy. 2024. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2024-10/Cumulative%20Impacts%20Guide_Eng.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Using Science and Organizing to Advance Public Health Policy |date=October 2024 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2024-10/Cumulative%20Impacts%20Guide_Eng.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2024using, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Using Science and Organizing to Advance Public Health Policy}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2024}, month = oct, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2024-10/Cumulative%20Impacts%20Guide_Eng.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }