The Environmental Injustice of Beauty Products: Toward Clean and Equitable Beauty

• Published in: American journal of public health (1971) 2022-01, Vol.112 (1), p.50-53
• Main Authors: McDonald, Jasmine A, Llanos, Adana A M, Morton, Taylor, Zota, Ami R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air pollution; Beauty Culture - standards; Beliefs; Climate change; Collaboration; Community; Constellations; Cosmetics - standards; Cosmetics - toxicity; Discrimination; Educational opportunities; Environment; Environmental health; Environmental justice; Environmental racism; Ethnic and Racial Minorities; Exposure; Farmworkers; Food; Gentrification; Hazardous wastes; Health sciences; Humans; Indigenous peoples; Inequalities; Inequality; Infrastructure; Landfills; Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Persons; Mexican Americans; Minority & ethnic groups; Minority Groups; Monuments; New Frontiers of Environmental Justice; Occupational exposure; Oppression; Other Race/Ethnicity; Outdoor air quality; Participatory research; Pesticides; Petrochemicals industry; Petroleum pipelines; Pipelines; Public health; Public Policy - legislation & jurisprudence; Racism; Roads; Sacredness; Segregation; Sexual and Gender Minorities; Social Determinants of Health; Space telescopes; Telescopes; Urban renewal; Waste disposal sites; Wealth
• ISSN: 0090-0036; 1541-0048
• DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2021.306606

Environmental racism is historically rooted in planned resource inequalities and restricted access to nature for Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Present-day and historical manifestations of systems of oppression inform each aspect of environmental inequalities. This constellation of factors determines who is exposed to environmental harms, who has the resources to adapt to harms, who develops conditions making them more susceptible to harm, and, ultimately, who lives and dies.Policies have historically prioritized White communities via opportunities to accumulate wealth through segregation, gentrification, and systematic preclusion of BIPOC communities from economic and educational opportunities.1 ~4 According to a Brazilian proverb, "The hearts of the poor do not beat, they are beaten." Infrastructure investments have not been equally distributed, as evidenced by the Interstate Highway System, which destroyed vibrant Black communities.5 Indigenous communities were forced from ancestral lands to locations lacking sustainable resources and breaking connections with traditional ecological knowledge and belief systems tied to place and nature. Hispanic and Latinx people have historically lived near major roadways, breathe some of the most polluted air in the nation, and often experience higher exposures to pesticides.6Environmental justice (EJ) actions emanate from places such as Warren County, North Carolina; the Black Hills and Paha Sapa of South Dakota; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Mauna Kea in Hawaii, which have all been marked by injustice. These actions were taken to resist hazardous waste landfills being built in poor, majority Black communities; oil pipelines, telescopes, and monuments carved into sacred landscapes; Mexican and Central American farmworkers being exposed to pesticides; and mining and petrochemical industries disproportionately affecting Puerto Ricans.