Objectives
It is within this context of environmental injustice that I will be teaching my students chemistry, including green chemistry. BVHP is the community in which many of my students live, bordering the neighborhoods of most students who do not live there; it is clear that a study of environmental justice and injustice is, therefore, extremely relevant to the students I teach. Integrating chemistry into this unit can lend relevance to a subject that many of my students perceive as academically out of reach for them. Within this unit, chemistry is presented in a real-world framework that makes the content more accessible. My goal is to integrate chemistry in two substantive ways.
The Chemistry of Toxicity
First, my students will learn the chemistry necessary to understand toxicity. While BVHP is rife with toxic substances, the concept of toxicity is often abstract. Even as we name toxic substances, we may not understand the characteristics that cause their toxicity. I want my students to have a chemistry-based understanding of why certain chemicals are toxic based on their atomic and/or molecular structures and how a substance's atomic and/or molecular structure can cause it to be toxic. To this end, I have chosen to categorize BVHP's toxic array into four main categories based on their atomic or molecular composition: reactivity, solubility, radioactivity, and volatility. Through an examination of these chemical characteristics, students will gain a chemical understanding of toxicity while necessarily learning several related fundamental concepts of chemistry: atomic structure, electron configuration, ionic and covalent bonds, polarity, ions and isotopes, atomic and molecular mass. An ability to analyze the structure of toxicity will also enable students to better comprehend how that same structure influences its toxic interactions with the atmosphere and within the body—the mechanisms of toxicity and the resulting effects of specific toxins on human health.
In addition to learning the fundamental concepts in chemistry that facilitate understanding of the nature of a chemical's toxicity, students will also examine case studies of specific substances found in BVHP that exhibit toxicity of each nature. Because of the extremely high incidence of respiratory ailments among BVHP residents and among my students, these case studies will focus on airborne pollutants and the effects of compromised air quality. Within each case study, we will examine the source of the toxin and analyze its impact on human health in the BVHP community. Chemistry will become a tool to help students deepen their understanding of environmental justice issues, as they will be able to identify what makes a toxin toxic and what kinds of chemicals pose threats to the community. This study of chemistry can empower students and their communities with concrete scientific knowledge about environmental injustice.
In examining unsustainable practices within local industries, students can learn to identify specific processes, substances, and waste products that pose issues of toxicity, threatening human health and the environment. They will know why it is bad to have a freeway in their neighborhood, whether the sewage treatment plant simply smells bad or if it presents a health hazard, and how far away you have to be from radioactive waste before you are safe. My students should be able to identify substances that put their communities at risk when emitted into the air they breathe, the water they drink, or the soil in which they play, and to understand why those substances are dangerous. This knowledge can enable them to identify and combat environmental injustices. I will also provide examples of critical campaigns against environmental injustice in which a community's ability to gather data and provide evidence of toxicity—in air, water, or soil—has led to an environmental justice victory. In one specific case, a neighborhood called "Cancer Alley" in Louisiana, residents affected by toxins identified and tested for specific toxic chemicals affecting air quality. They presented undeniable findings to the polluting corporation, elected officials, and even the United Nations, eventually winning relocation for the residents. The utilization of science can, in this manner, serve as an important tool for communities fighting to secure environmental justice.
Within this study of chemical composition and toxicity, green chemistry will be integrated as well. With its emphasis on understanding and evaluating risks and hazards, green chemistry can add to our discourse around the damage each type of toxin we study can potentially cause the BVHP community. I plan to introduce two concepts presented in Green Chemistry by Paul T. Anastas and John C. Warner: the formula Risk=f(hazard, exposure), 4 5 as well as the method of assessment for toxicity being based upon analysis of potency, severity, and reversibility. 4 6 Using these methodologies, students can begin to evaluate the risks posed by the toxins they face, potentially identifying which substances are most dangerous to the community.
Intersecting Principles: Green Chemistry and Environmental Justice
The second way I will integrate chemistry into this unit, focusing specifically on green chemistry, is by having students examine the principles and practice of green chemistry as a means of discovering possible methods of remediating or preventing the types of toxicity that exist in BVHP. Students, for example, can explore whether or not there is a greener way to treat sewage or if it is chemically possible to burn fuel in cars or in power plants without emitting pollutants. More specifically, I want students to evaluate whether or not there are current innovations in green chemistry that make it possible to power our cars and homes without also contributing to the alarming rates of asthma, breast cancer, and chronic bronchitis in the low-income communities like BVHP where power plants and freeways have been built. When communities demand relief from the toxins that plague them, knowledge of viable alternatives can aid in their efforts. Since green chemistry calls for the creation of products that "preserve the efficacy of function while reducing toxicity," 4 7 it is conceivable, then, that understanding green chemistry can mean understanding how to create safer, healthier communities.
This process of exploring green chemistry will take place in two stages. First, students will read and analyze the twelve principles of green chemistry, examining case studies of those most applicable. While many of the principles are very technical and specific to areas of chemistry we will not be studying, students can gain a general comprehension of the ideology and the ways the field of chemistry will have to change in order to become more sustainable. Earlier in the semester, students will have learned the seventeen principles of environmental justice. After they examine the principles of green chemistry, I will ask them to identify any ways they see that the two sets of principles align. The first green chemistry principle, "It is better to prevent waste than to treat or clean up waste after it is formed," 4 8 for example, aligns closely to the sixth principle of environmental justice, "Environmental Justice demands the cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and that all past and current producers be held strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and the containment at the point of production," 4 9 because both principles call for preventing toxic materials from being produced and clean up is a less desirable option. Similarly, the tenth principle of green chemistry, "Chemical products should be designed so that at the end of their function they break down into innocuous degradation products and do not persist in the environment," 5 0 aligns with the fourth principle of environmental justice, "Environmental Justice calls for universal protection from nuclear testing, extraction, production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons and nuclear testing that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and food" 5 1 in that toxic substances must not be allowed to enter the environment. Using the principles of green chemistry, students will generalize the goals of the field and analyze how those goals might apply to efforts to achieve environmental justice.
In the second stage, each student will choose a source of toxicity in BVHP or Southeast San Francisco and research any green developments, based on the principles of green chemistry, which can help reduce or eliminate the toxins. For example, a student investigating contamination of soil by chemical waste products might discover bioremediation efforts involving fungi or bacteria based on the principal that "A raw material or feedstock should be renewable rather than depleting wherever technically and economically practicable." 5 2 While this principle was certainly not articulated with bioremediation in mind, the idea of renewable materials can lead a student, in their research, to bioremediation. This same principle might lead to a study of freeway pollution illustrating the need for cars running on alternative fuels or the power plant being replaced with a solar array or wind turbines. To launch their discovery of alternatives to toxic practices and products affecting BVHP, students will identify which green chemistry principles could be enacted and, therefore, what innovations—or, conceivably, lack thereof—currently exist. As a conclusion, students will also identify the environmental justice principles best supported by the solutions they discover to the toxic problems they have chosen to address. It is not, however, my intention to paint green chemistry as the panacea for all that is toxic in the world. Rather, I want my students to analyze the potential and limitations offered by green chemistry, and honestly evaluate the extent to which green chemistry can contribute to achieving both greater sustainability and increased environmental justice. While pharmaceuticals, plastics, energy, and fuel are areas of significant research and development, students might be hard pressed to find an alternative to traditional meat rendering plant processes that can reduce VOC emissions or a way to eliminate radiation in landfills. The purpose of this process is to acquaint students with the world of sustainable science in order to foster a sense of agency around the feasibility of making BVHP and Southeast San Francisco safer and more just for the communities within them.
By incorporating chemistry into our study of environmental justice, students can achieve the objectives of using chemistry to understand the nature of the toxicity they face on atomic and molecular levels, as well as examining the viability of green chemistry and its principles in working for greater environmental justice. In doing so, this unit achieves two larger objectives: First, it demystifies hard science by placing it in a relevant context that makes chemistry accessible. Second, it enables students to use science to generate a greater sense of agency in addressing the issues that plague their community. Students can become both scholars and as scientists.
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