Environmental Inequality: Childhood Lead Poisoning as an Inadvertent Consequence of the Refugee Resettlement Process

Abstract

Communities are important health determinants for resettled refugees. The risk for lead poisoning among African refugee children who resettle in the United States remains elevated, despite the gradual decrease in childhood lead poisoning in this country. We argue that the refugee resettlement process is a restricted system with a limited infrastructure that inadvertently contributes to the disproportionate burden of lead poisoning cases experienced by resettled African refugee children. We present childhood lead poisoning in a resettled African refugee population as a case study of environmental inequality. We propose recommendations for practitioners to reduce and ultimately eliminate this unintended environmental inequality.

Keywords:

• environmental inequality
• childhood lead poisoning
• African refugees
• refugee resettlement
• refugee resettlement agency

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Ms. Kathy Mandeville, RN, MS, MPH, Manchester Health Department, for discussions about this work; Lutheran Social Services; International Institute of Manchester; Manchester Health Department; New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services' Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program; New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning; Somali Development Center; Southern Sudan Community of New Hampshire; and Women for Women Coalition for their participation in this work.