Thursday, March 27, 2008 | The biotech sector may have lent the extra muscle needed to win the common sense policies included in the city’s general plan update, but the victory symbolizes a much larger growing consensus around what organizations like Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) have been saying for decades: people and toxics don’t mix.
EHC has long worked with residents to correct the environmental injustice of discriminatory land-use practices that put industries next to homes and schools in communities like Barrio Logan and National City. It makes infinitely more sense to prevent these kinds of public health disasters with land use policies that keep industry and families safely separated.
EHC, the Working Waterfront Group and other public health and industrial organizations that were part of the general plan efforts will continue to engage at the community plan level. Look for “future battles” to play out first in Barrio Logan and Otay Mesa, where we’ll be fighting to protect the health of current and future residents.
Laura Benson is the director of the Toxic Free Neighborhoods Campaign from the Environmental Health Coalition.