Human–Environment Interactions and Environmental Justice: How Do Diverse Parents of Asthmatic Children Minimize Hazards?

Abstract

While environmental justice researchers have established enduring linkages between environmental hazards and poor populations, little is known about the human–environment interactions of urbanites of varying socioenvironmental positions. To investigate how humans interact with differentially polluted urban environments, 53 interviews with parents of asthmatic children living in the central city and the suburbs were conducted. Parents used four techniques to minimize the impact of hazards on their asthmatic child: modify the child's activities; modify home environment; move to another home; and collective action. With its focus on interactions between people and their environments, this study reveals micro-scale hazards and lack of control over the ambient environment as additional dimensions of environmental injustice.

Keywords:

• childhood asthma
• environmental justice
• environmental perceptions
• human–environment interactions
• spatial inequality