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Science Looks at the Connection between Inequalities and Ecology
By Hervé Kempf
Le Monde
Friday 11 April 2008
Does the divide between rich and poor obtain in the field of the environment?
Explored for a long time within the Anglo-Saxon world under the term "environmental
justice," this question is emerging today in France, as witnessed by a
colloquium organized in Paris April 10 by the Agence française de sécurité
sanitaire de l'environnement et du travail (Afsset) [French Agency for Environmental
and Labor Safety] and the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (IEP)
[Paris Institute for Political Studies].
Alexis Roy, sociologist at the Institut français de l'environnement
[French Institute for the Environment], posed the scientific problem: "Do
environmental inequalities exist? If so, are they linked to social inequalities?"
These questions appear in the context of the strong growth over the last thirty
years in social inequalities in developing countries. The phenomenon is reflected
in the workplace, where exposure to pollutants, stress and tiring positions
is very different for executives than it is for blue collar workers: "These
gaps have not decreased in France between the beginning of the 1970s and today,"
revealed Afsset's Gérard Lasfargues, who, moreover, highlighted workers'
growing exposure to chemical products, while Philippe Grandjean, from the Danish
Odense University, talked about a "silent epidemic" with respect to
the increase in neurotoxins.
John Fairburn of Staffordshire University presented several case studies showing
how social position correlates to exposure to environmental pollution. For example,
in the Hull region of Great Britain, there is a clear relationship between housing
located in floodplains and low income.
But it's not always easy to demonstrate a relationship between the environment
and social situation, as the discussion around the work piloted by Denis Bard
of the école des hautes études en santé publique [School
for Advanced Public Health Studies] illustrated. Bard's team studied the link
between exposure to atmospheric pollution, asthma crises linked to pollution
spikes, and residence in more or less posh neighborhoods in Strasbourg. The
result? "Nothing significant was found."
To the contrary and notwithstanding, a study of the same type conducted in
Vancouver, Canada, showed a very strong relationship. So the discussion showed
that methodological problems were essential (size of the sample, data availability,
recourse to instruments of sociological analysis, etc.). This approach assumes,
in fact, an intersection of disciplines - epidemiology, toxicology, geography,
economics, sociology - that is still uncommon.
It also appeared that the connection between inequalities and the environment
cannot be reduced to an analysis of risk exposure, but reflects more political
questions. "In international climate negotiations, the question of burden-sharing
is essential," the OECD's Nick Johnstone noted. That question is also a
domestic one for all developed countries: "For several years," concluded
Didier Tabuteau, director of the IEP's Health Rostrum, "we observe the
return of a logic of productivism, as the Attali report illustrated. We must
take care not to reproduce the past which led us into very serious public health
problems." And so we must not forget the connections between economics,
inequality and the environment.
Translation: Truthout French language editor Leslie Thatcher.
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