National Nurses United

T here is a well-known parable of sorts that Lara Norkus-Crampton likes to use to explain why, as a regis- tered nurse, it makes sense for RNs to speak up and be active in fighting for environmental justice. In the story, some Good Samaritans encounter a baby drowning in a river. They rush to save the child, but no sooner do they do so than they spot another baby coming down the water. As they again hurry to save the second child, one of the Good Samaritans leaves and starts walking up the riverbank. "What are you doing?" said the ones in the water. "Can't you see that we have to help these children?" "Yes, I know," said the one heading upstream. "I'm going to go find out who is throwing these babies in the water!" As people who care for sick patients day in, day out, registered nurses often treat illnesses that are the results of environmental pol- lution and toxins. Anecdotally, many RNs are seeing an alarming number of cases of rare cancers among their patients, and patients getting diagnosed with cancer at younger and younger ages. And across the country, RNs are seeing skyrocketing rates of asthma and other respiratory problems among their patients. The World Health Organization in March 2014 reported that approximately 7 million deaths each year are a direct result of air pollution—meaning that 1 out of 8 people around the world die because our air is dirty. "When you're nursing, you're cleaning up the mess at the end. You're dealing with sickness, disease," said Norkus-Crampton, a float nurse and Minnesota Nurses Association member who works at Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, Minn. and has been active in preventing expanded operations for a garbage incinerator in downtown Minneapolis. "But if you know some things are harming people, it's our responsibility to look upstream and ask, 'Who or what is putting these toxins into the environ- ment?' This is a natural fit with our mission as nurses and as a national union. As nurses, we're not looking for a quick fix, but the right fix." Like the Good Samaritan who sets out to find the source of the problem, registered nurses such as Norkus-Crampton are increasing- ly stepping outside of their hospitals and clinics to fight for environ- mental justice and for policies that can help their patients prevent illness and achieve healthier lives. Environmental justice is the con- cept that the destruction of our natural environment does not hap- pen in a vacuum, but rather is determined by economics, race, and class. It's no accident that many sources of pollution are located in or near low-income communities of color. In turn, the consequences of this pollution disproportionately hurts these same groups, not only because they are exposed to it, but because they may work low-wage jobs that are less likely to offer healthcare or they may be unable to afford medical treatment for health conditions that develop as a result of exposure. When natural disasters hit as a result of climate change, these communities also suffer the most. "I've seen close up the impact of poverty on the health of people," said Katy Roemer, a maternity RN for Kaiser Permanente and CNA/NNOC board member who has visited the slums of Mexico City. "Just by virtue of being poor, people had health impacts that people with money did not have or could mitigate, such as access to sanitation or clean water. All of that is also true in the United States for people who don't have resources and live in poverty." Registered nurses get it. To solve the problem at its root, National Nurses United RNs across the country are participating in cam- paigns to oppose hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking;" to stop the con- struction and expansion of infrastructure to move and refine dirty tar sands oil; to prevent the mass storage of petroleum coke (a byproduct of the oil refining process) in their communities; and the list goes on. In city after city, nurses are showing up at government hearings, rallies, panels, forums, protests, and marches to speak up J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 1 4 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 15 As public health professionals, RNs are natural advocates and leaders for environmental justice

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