EDUCATION OUTREACH

WE ACT is currently funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) project to train 20 community residents per year for three years on environmental health issues. WE ACT's partners on this project are Columbia University's School of Public Health and the Harlem Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. This partnership evolved out of a longstanding relationship between WE ACT and these two institutions in the Northern Manhattan community. Both WE ACT and these institutions share a common commitment to improving the Northern Manhattan environment and the health of its residents.

The Environmental Justice Movement has illuminated the fact that people of color are disproportionately and excessively exposed to chemical and physical hazards in the environment. While there are egregious localized instances of environmental injustice, in aggregate, urban populations of color exposed to a multitude of hazards represent a sizeable portion of those who are affected by environmentally unjust policies and practices. The goal of this project is to inform and empower the predominantly low income people of color in three urban communities in Northern Manhattan (specifically, Central Harlem, West Harlem, and Washington Heights) about the excess levels of airborne particulate matter and carbon monoxide from heavy car, bus, and truck traffic as well as other environmental pollutants to which they are exposed.

 The long term goal of these efforts is to help intervene and reduce exposure to environmental toxicants which are adversely affecting the health of these disadvantaged, medically underserved, predominantly African American and Latino populations in Northern Manhattan. Through careful documentation, evaluation, and dissemination of findings, the model to be developed here can be generalized to other communities and adapted to accommodate regional environmental concerns.

WE ACT, in collaboration with Harlem Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Columbia University's School of Public Health's NIEHS Center for Environmental Health in Harlem in Northern Manhattan, held three environmental health forums in 1997. Funding for the forums was provided by NIEHS and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA).

 Although some of the environmental concerns expressed by residents at the forum were related to environmental health issues that are considered by researchers to be public health priorities (notably, traffic, housing and water and air quality problems), residents also expressed concerns about a wide variety of environmental features that are not easily captured by structured interviews (e.g., impairment of the ability to walk down the sidewalks, noise late into the evenings, stray dogs roaming the neighborhoods, etc.) There needs to be recognition of and attention paid to these concerns as well so that there can be an informative and respectful two-way exchange of information between community residents and environmental health researchers. There is also a need for stimulating and accessible formats in which to exchange this information.

Uptown Asthma Awareness Month
Central Harlem's 1990 asthma mortality rate was five times higher than the overall New York City rate, which is the highest in the United States. Statistics clearly show that the City's African-American and Latino communities have the greatest burden of asthma deaths, as well as increased demands for health care treatment for asthma. In response to this growing epidemic, in June 1996, WE ACT organized its highly successful "Uptown Asthma Awareness Month."

 The month-long public awareness campaign was jointly sponsored by WE ACT and the Harlem Center For Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. An impressive group of nationally recognized medical doctors, scientists and researchers, who are expert on the subject of asthma and air pollution were brought together to share their research, studies and recommendations on how to deal with the alarming rise of this disease with the Harlem and Washington Heights.

 The purpose of this campaign was to help members of the community gain a better understanding of the scope of asthma, including its indoor and outdoor environmental triggers, and to offer them useful strategies to help control the disease. In recognition of WE ACT's efforts to inform the community about this important issue, the President of the Borough of Manhattan declared June "Uptown Asthma Awareness Month."

 Keeping Brownfields Clean Initiative
 Brownfields are abandoned, idled or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. For example, sites like vacant lots, former gas stations, or abandoned factories, manufacturing plants, and commercial buildings, could all qualify as brownfields sites. The Keeping Brownfields Clean Initiative seeks to clean up brownfields sites to reduce risk to surrounding communities as well as promote their redevelopment and beneficial reuse.

 West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) believe that a rare opportunity now exists to meld together our unique organizational experiences to help advance the development of successful Brownfields projects that utilize pollution prevention technologies in Northern Manhattan communities.

 WE ACT and NRDC have received a grant to plan, implement and execute, the Keeping Brownfields Clean Initiative. The purpose of this 12-month initiative is to allow both the affected communities and the Northern Manhattan Empowerment Zone to play an integral role in defining appropriate Brownfields redevelopment projects in these communities, as well as a full exploration of the range of technologies and potential projects that would integrate pollution prevention into their redevelopment efforts.

 This joint effort would seek to explore issues of site identification and appropriate remediation and developmental goals concerning cleanup standards, future land use, zoning and development objective which are compatible with the vision of the community and the mission of the Empowerment Zone. Most importantly this project would focus on pollution prevention objectives to ensure the long term sustainability of Brownfields redevelopment projects and the overall health and well being of potentially impacted communities in Northern Manhattan.

 One of the main developments of this project thus far was the collective decision by the advisory board that our effort should focus on small lot redevelopment as opposed to major parcel redevelopment. We made this decision collectively and resolutely. It was our belief that developers will be attracted to the few large parcels available in Northern Manhattan for redevelopment project. However, we were especially concerned about the disposition of the smaller lots that dot the Northern Manhattan landscape and pose particular redevelopment challenges.

Dry Cleaners Campaign
The goal of the Dry Cleaners Campaign is to reduce the amount of toxins (perc) emitted into the air and waste stream by dry cleaners located in the four communities of Northern Manhattan, and to reduce exposure by workers and nearby residents. The campaign is a cooperative effort between WE ACT and EPA Region II in collaboration with the Neighborhood Cleaners Association and the Union of Needle Trades, Industrial & Textile Employees (UNITE).