The Dirty Secret of Lowndes County, Alabama

Abstract

Book Review of Waste: One Woman's FIght Against America's Direty Secret

Home sanitation is an area where housing and environmental justice intersect. The term environmental justice describes a world where the benefits of a healthy environment are fairly distributed among all communities. But many Black, Brown, indigenous, and/or poor communities receive more than their share of the negative side effects of modern life, living near hazardous waste landfills, toxic air emissions from heavy industry, and in homes without adequate ventilation, water, heat, and sanitation. At its most basic, a decent place to live should not make its owners and residents sick through exposure to human waste.

Note: Copyright 2024 American Bar Association. Reproduced by permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or downloaded or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

Keywords: environmental justice, sewage, housing