December 11, 2025– On behalf of Young, Gifted & Green, a civil rights and environmental justice organization founded in Ward 5 in 2016, we are honored to stand in solidarity with frontline Washingtonians to support both the Ivy City Resilience Hub Eminent Domain Authority Act of 2025 and the Shine Safely Act of 2025.

While DC has a rich history of Black leadership and home to the Black Mecca Howard University, it is also marked by legacy pollution, redlining, and environmental racism that continue to affect health outcomes in our communities today. Cumulative impacts are defined by EPA is “the totality of exposures to combinations of chemical and non-chemical stressors and their effects on health, well-being, and quality of life outcomes”. Cumulative impacts are exacerbated from industrial facilities like National Engineering Products, Inc. disproportionately harming the Ivy City community by increasing exposure to pollutants like formaldehyde and methylene chloride, which are known to increase the risk of respiratory illnesses, developmental delays, and other chronic health issues, particularly among children and pregnant people. (Srinivasan et al., 2020). These cumulative impacts increase the risks of developing co-morbidities. The major co-morbidities and leading causes of death in Ward 5 are primarily heart disease, cancer, and hypertension, with higher death rates for these conditions compared to the District and national averages, all illnesses that are associated with environmental pollution (Dill-Hudson, 2020):

Heart Disease: This is the leading cause of death in Ward 5, with crude death rates significantly higher (around 25-27% higher) than the DC and U.S. averages.

Cancer: Cancer is the second leading cause of death, and its death rate is approximately 21% higher than the District-wide rate.

Diabetes: Prevalence and mortality rates associated with diabetes in Ward 5 are higher than the city-wide rate.

Sepsis: Sepsis-related inpatient discharges are most common among those in Ward 5, particularly among residents aged 65 and older.

Obesity: Ward 5 has a higher prevalence of general overweight (36-37%) compared to some other wards, which is a significant health risk behavior.

Exposure to environmental toxins can lead to significant academic declines in school-aged children, with absenteeism linked to both physical and emotional health challenges stemming from pollution-related stress (Lu et al., 2021). According to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, the chronic absenteeism rate for DC Public School students was around 40% in the 2023-24 school year where approximately 40% of D.C. public school students missed 10% or more of school days. This is not just a matter of missing school days; it is about the long-term academic and health trajectories of our children, which ultimately hinder their future opportunities.

We are calling on DC Council to prioritize investment in both environmental justice and reparative justice, an attempt to undo the wrongs that have negatively impacted communities like Ivy City. Environmental and reparative justice looks like investments in community resilience hubs similar to what exists in Ward 7, another frontline community. Community resilience hubs offer significant public health and cost-benefits by serving as vital centers for proactive community support and emergency response. By providing access to essential resources like clean air, water, charging stations, and health services during crises, they safeguard public well-being and reduce health disparities, especially for vulnerable populations, fostering long-term community stability and economic resilience.

We are also in support of the Shine Safely Act. Phasing out the sale and distribution of mercury‑containing fluorescent lamps advances public health, environmental protection, worker safety, and long‑term cost savings for District residents and businesses. Removing these lamps reduces the risk of indoor mercury exposure, especially important for pregnant people and young children, who are most vulnerable to mercury’s neuro-developmental effects, lowers the chance of contamination during breaks, spills, or mproper disposal, and decreases the burden on local waste systems (Clarkson, 2006; Grandjean, 2014; U.S. EPA, 2025).

Over time, transitioning to safer, energy‑efficient alternatives like LED lighting can yield operational savings for schools, small businesses, and households through lower energy use and reduced replacement and cleanup costs, benefits that compound for low‑income communities disproportionately affected by indoor and outdoor air pollution and high energy burden (IEA, 2021; U.S. EPA, 2025).

Thank you for the opportunity to advocate for humanity and justice for Ivy City and every DC community in between. Please contact us at info@younggiftedgreen.org for any follow-up questions.

Sources

larkson, T. W., & Magos, L. (2006). The toxicology of mercury and its chemical compounds. Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 36(8), 609–662.

Dill-Hudson, A. (2020). DC Community Health Needs Assessment.

Ghatti, S., Dorris, S., Geng, X. et al. Mapping DC health inequities: a scoping review comparing scientific and medical humanities approaches. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 12, 1723.

Grandjean, P., & Landrigan, P. J. (2014). Neurobehavioral effects of developmental toxicity. The Lancet Neurology, 13(3), 330–338.

IEA. (2021). NetZero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector.

Lu, W., et al. (2021). Ambient air pollution associated with lower academic achievement among US children: A nationwide panel study of school districts. Environ Epidemiol.

Srinivasan, S., et al. (2020). Cumulative Environmental Impacts and Health Disparities: An Overview. Environmental Health Perspectives, 128(9).

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2025). Universal Wastes.