Mississippi Delta Project Overview

The Mississippi Delta Project is a response, in part, to Executive Order 128908 (February 11, 1994), which outlines federal action to address environmental justice in minority and low income populations. Among the areas of the country most threatened by indiscriminate prevalence of environmental hazards are the 219 counties within the seven states comprising the Mississippi Delta Region (MDR); Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. These counties have disproportionately high mortality and morbidity rates for diseases linked to a variety of excess hazardous chemicals found in the Mississippi Delta.

The Minority Health Professions Foundation (MHPF) partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to address concern for the effects of environmental pollutants on the health of residents of the Delta and the role that health professionals might play in addressing these concerns.

In 1994, Howard University College of Nursing entered into an agreement with MHPF to spearhead a nursing initiative to increase a focus on environmental health, with particular attention to the MDR. Nursing, the largest of the health professions, is well positioned as a primary conduit through which prevention and health promotion messages and strategies can be conveyed, interventions can be targeted, surveillance and case finding can be achieved, and communities empowered to organized to address current and potential threats.