Premier Issue of Environmental Justice Just Published

Published on May 15, 2008 - 7:25:15 AM

By: Environmental Justice

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y., May 14, 2008 -- Environmental Justice, a new quarterly peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is the central forum for the research, debate, and discussion of the equitable treatment and involvement of all people, especially minority and low-income populations, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. The premier issue is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/env .

The goal of Environmental Justice is to provide an intellectual forum that presents a balanced and objective assessment of environmental inequalities locally, nationally, and globally. The Journal explores the adverse and disparate environmental burden impacting marginalized populations and draws upon the expertise and perspectives of all parties involved in environmental justice struggles: communities, industry, academia, government, and nonprofit organizations.

Legal challenges and lawsuits to ensure prevention of harmful policies, projects, and developments are within its purview, as are issues of compliance and enforcement, activism, and corrective actions. Studies that demonstrate the adverse health affects on populations who are most subject to health and environmental hazards are pertinent, as well as the complicated issues inherent in remediation, funding, relocation of facilities that pose hazardous risk to health, and selection of new locations.

The Journal will engage a multidisciplinary audience including scholars, scholar-activists, grassroots activists, and professionals from multiple disciplines including law, history, geography, political science, biology, economics, philosophy, anthropology, women's studies, African American studies, ethnic studies, environmental engineering, environmental science, urban planning, and psychology.

This provocative new publication is under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Sylvia Hood Washington, MSE, PhD, ND, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health; Senior Editor Kenneth Olden, PhD, ScD, LHD, former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH; and an illustrious editorial board.

"With an increased knowledge of the environmental justice issues that have negative impacts on the health of our communities, community members should be able to engage in dialogue and actions that encourages and promotes environmental equity in places where inequality exist," says Editor-in-Chief Sylvia Hood Washington. "Environmental equality means healthier people and healthier communities."

The inaugural issue of the Journal focuses on analyses of past and contemporary environmental compliance and enforcement, activism, and corrective actions, environmental politics, environmental health disparities, environmental epidemiology, environmental sociology, and environmental history. "Mrs. Block Beautiful: African American Women and the Birth of the Urban Conservation Movement, Chicago, IL, 1917-1954" by Sylvia Hood Washington is an historical essay that elucidates the vital role that African American women played in launching the first national urban conservation movement in the United States.

"Articulating the Basis for Promoting Environmental Justice in Central and Eastern Europe" by Tamara Steger and Richard Filcak explores the international impact and global ramifications of the environmental justice movement and spotlights environmental justice as a global injustice and international human rights crisis.

In "'A Small Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens': Women's Activism, Environmental Justice and the Coal River Mountain Watch," Joyce M. Barry presents a contemporary oral history study of women struggling to combat environmental inequalities in West Virginia, facing unique environmental and health challenges.

Other papers in the inaugural issue include: "Where's the Kale? Environmental Availability of Fruits and Vegetables in Two Racially Dissimilar Communities" by Edith M. Williams et al.; "Obesity, Physical Activity, and the Environment: Is There a Legal Basis for Environmental Injustices?" by Wendell C. Taylor et al.; "Mortality Rates in Appalachian Coal Mining Counties: 24 Years Behind the Nation" by Michael Hendryx; and three book reviews of seminal literature in the field.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science, medicine, biomedical research, and law, including Sustainability: The Journal of Record, Environmental Engineering Science, and Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide.

A complete list of the firm's 60 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at www.liebertpub.com.

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