Assessing environmental health aspects of environmental justice in communities living in industrially contaminated areas: An international network to share approaches and experiences.

Background: Industrially contaminated areas (ICA) are areas hosting or that have hosted industrial human activities (including industrial agriculture and mining) that have produced or might produce, directly or indirectly, chemical contamination of soil, surface or groundwater, air, or food chains, resulting in ecosystem and/or human health impacts.Pollution in ICA can derive from multiple sources and be closely interrelated with social and economic deprivation of affected communities. Furthermore, these populations may experience health criticalities, limited access to health care and ecosystem resources, and can be considered overburdened or environmental justice (EJ) communities. Objectives: This commentary stems from the discussion at the symposium "Assessing Environmental Justice for Communities Living in Industrially Contaminated Areas: Sharing Approaches and Experiences" (36th Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology-Santiago de Chile, 2024). The objective being to propose an international network to share research experiences on EJ in ICA in Europe and in the Latin American regions to enable more consistent knowledge and better policy responses to address the objectives of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable and Development Goals Agenda, specifically reducing inequality within and among countries. Discussion and policy implication: EJ associated with ICA has been observed in different countries, as investigated through single-site or nationwide assessments. Procedural aspects of EJ include misrecognition of the rights of affected communities to be informed through inclusive communication. This implies the marginalization of the communities in the decision-making process addressing the health impacts of ICA. We propose an international effort based on collaborative work to identify experiences in diversified contexts, research needs, and intervention priorities.