Chemical Exposures, Health, and Environmental Justice in Communities Living on the Fenceline of Industry

By: Gabrielle Francis Conrad-Amlicke, MSW August 3, 2020

social workenvironmental justice, environmental policy, environmental racism, environmental social work, Green Social Work, INFJ blog, PFASs, social worker, systems of oppressionLeave a Comment

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Recent Findings

“More people are living near oil and gas development due to the expansion of unconventional extraction techniques as well as near industrial animal operations, both with suggestive evidence of increased exposure to hazardous pollutants and adverse health effects. Legacy contamination continues to adversely impact a new generation of residents in fenceline communities, with recent studies documenting exposures to toxic metals and poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). Researchers are also giving consideration to acute exposures resulting from inadvertent industrial chemical releases, including those resulting from extreme weather events linked to climate change. Natural experiments of industrial closures or cleanups provide compelling evidence that exposures from industry harm the health of nearby residents” Credit to Author

Synthetic Chemicals and Health (A Zota and T James-Todd, Section Editors)
Published: 22 January 2020

Chemical Exposures, Health, and Environmental Justice in Communities Living on the Fenceline of Industry

Jill Johnston &
Lara Cushing

Current Environmental Health Reports volume 7, pages48–57(2020)Cite this article

This Many Hands Not Need Eyes to See- I Write This Poem In Solidarity

By: Gabrielle Francis Conrad-Amlicke, MSW June 4, 2020September 11, 2020

Environmental Justice Research, Environmental Social Work for Environmental Justice, Published, social work, UncategorizedLeave a Comment

We can do so much or so little.
The button of these new overalls won’t fit.
Produced, manufactured, stitched

The hole is bound.
Before binding we measure.
The measure is susceptible to human error.
yet, measures are not what they seem.
Do you, or I, myself, know it wasn’t the fault of a machine.

The button has force but only through my body, my fingers my energy.
Hands that once forced buttons through tight holes are skeletons.
Skeletons killing skeletons is the fact of the matter.

300 bones at birth fuse together to make 206. 206 bones learn through the environment.

The splendors of life decomposing.
The degradation of one’s ability to choose the measure, the amount of force needed to get the button through its hole.

If you fear your overalls won’t fit you push harder.
Strap up and strap in or stagnation, transient thought of fabric pushback upon the first attempt of this action.
Whether the machine was off the count or the hand may we pounder.
What must you think of your counterpart?

The button can not speak; no mouth it was given. No bones, no face, no nothing like you, I, Me, We, All are.
300 bones don’t fuse to 206 to become organic matter by such forceful thoughtlessness.

See 206 took, the process, 206 took.

211 cant decipher through the receiver Where to route the calls. 206 bones become 412 at the moment of conception to being 270 to breath.
Fingers learn skills through cognition; family patterns and out of systems 206 bones.

The manufactures pick; price, worth, and gloating prosperity. Manufactures are not ghosts in presents. 206 bones they take skill them to slay; skillful systematic- targeted beyond belief.
206 bones cant breath – 206 bones feel eyes burnt – 206 bones plead – 206 bones proclaim don’t fear me I’m here to protect not manufactured to oblige to cries.

Bones attempt to write the manufacture – 206 bones are sent back copies of the manuals and procedures.
We tear it up, burn the book. We demand refunds on 206.

The fight will continue until a new skill is fabricated- we will die trying. We are hunting for gold with eyes wide shut. yet, we cant equate the power of many hands belonging to bling owners in unison searching; to the gaze of their eyes projecting power.

Fools handing us the book thinking we can’t rewrite our history- this many hands not need eyes, digging our graves, the graves of those manufacturers took to you to die.

This many hands not need eyes to see.

Global Public Goods(GPGs):Global Social Issue

By: Gabrielle Francis Conrad-Amlicke, MSW March 20, 2020September 11, 2020

Environmental Justice Research, Environmental Social Work for Environmental Justice, Published, social work, Uncategorizedenvironmental justice, environmental social work, Global Pubic Goods, Green Social Work, international social work, social work, social worker shopLeave a Comment

Global Public Goods (GPGs) is a variable which serves global agendas due to the necessary use of Intellectual Knowledge house in GPGs as platforms for strategic building in developing countries. As social workers engage with international relations the profession must have access to the most recent research. Often research is housed by gatekeepers. Thus, GPGs should be of a global concern for the way that Intellectual Knowledge promotes strengthened links to Resources for Social Workers to utilize within their; scope of practice, research, and application to practice theory.

Promoting Intellectual Knowledge as global public goods (GPGs) is an important element of the development agenda .
(Sahay , 2019)

Mainstream economics fails to recognize environmental limits to economic growth (Czech, 2013). Thus, Social Workers at an international level must engage with and have access to GPGs to support global social welfare; from a community focus to the varying economic impacts that come from GPGs being gated by a numerical cost.

Personal Stance(s) on Social Welfare and the Intersection of Economic and Political Philosophies

By: Gabrielle Francis Conrad-Amlicke, MSW December 19, 2019February 12, 2020

social workdeep ecology, ecofeminism, ecological economics, Environmental, environmental justice, environmental policy, environmental racism, environmental social work, Green Social Work, INFJ Blogger, MSW, social work, social worker, systems of oppressionLeave a Comment

To provide further insight about my own social and cultural experiences -what serves as the driving force for my passions as a social worker is fueled by the discrepancies individuals face in regards to access- specifically that of which comes from the physical world; or Natural Environment. Having grown up in an upper middle class town in CT, my experience of the Natural world was therapeutic and rejuvenating, I unknowingly reaped the benefits of lacking things such as noise pollution and environmental toxins all of which leads to mental and physical health benefits. Through these experiences and my undergraduate courses in Ecopsychology, I believe that at the base of social welfare is the welfare of the environment. None of the authors focused on the connection between the Natural world and Social Welfare. I seek to advocate for environmental justice. Both as an ancient society and modern, humans have founds means to essentially rape the natural world of its resources and through this process; limit access. When access is limited social welfare is negatively affected producing rippling effects upon every member of the society. To me social welfare is defined as- the collective ability which each individual human has to access resources which allow them not only live but thrive, collectively this serves as a reflection of the overall health of the human cohort. I believe social welfare can be examined through a defined population, this is why the social welfare of high class citizens “haves” (higher socioeconomic level) is often better than the social welfare of the lower class citizens “have nots” (lower socioeconomic level) (Segal, 2007).

Wagner (2005) summarizes how labels not only categorize and create a means for distinguishing generalizable information about a person, but also contributes to how information (labels) can be actually be misinformation- consequently leading to stereotypes and negative self-perception. Due to the fact that children cannot choose things like, who they are born to, where they are born, what socioeconomic status they have, exc. I feel it is up to the government to impede upon and into the framework of our society; as much as needed- in order to make sure access to resources is fairly distributed…

Who will win? Man or nature? A Timeless Question

By: Gabrielle Francis Conrad-Amlicke, MSW October 10, 2019September 11, 2020

Environmental Justice Research, Environmental Social Work for Environmental Justice, Published, social workenvironmental justice, environmental social work, social systems, social theory, social work3 Comments

There has been an attempt to turn an actual conversation, which at one point was modern, into some post-modern hype. The children protesting are not posing some satirical Modest Proposal (Jonathan Swift, 1729) esque archetype. They are disturbed.

The ongoing public conversation about the environment is grounded in the ancient dichotomy of man versus nature (Harpers Forum, 1990)

This quote rings true today. Policymakers, social advocates, and researchers are bound to an endless loop of rhetoric built around supposed here say. The trendiest of gossip is thus the oldest of gossip. You can almost hear the aristocrat women of the poor houses roll their eyes and whisper, can’t you?

“The children really shouldn’t be living in these conditions” is the logic that persuaded the acceptance of social welfare. Those with money, power, and knowledge, are doing their best to meet the needs of our most vulnerable. Privilege doesn’t come without sympathy, but it inevitably comes far removed from answers or solutions.

Were so perplexed by the modern state that even radical ideology is absent. How long do humans stay entranced by our inability to solve the unsolvable? It seems irrational to believe that funneling more money into the system will bring about any inventive solutions to the “environmental crisis,” especially when we continue to seek out solutions through what sits here in our laps and in our pockets. We, leaving the fate of society in the hands of our computers and not turning to each other to decode this iceberg, are collectively losing.

Do we make it out before Freud’s ice burg (1915) melts away? Can we see into and out through collectively self-actualizing?

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Chemical Exposures, Health, and Environmental Justice in Communities Living on the Fenceline of Industry

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