The North Carolina Medical Society affirms that all individuals and families in North Carolina deserve to live, work, learn, and play in a clean environment with healthy air, water, and land, free of toxins and other hazards to their physical, mental, behavioral, and emotional health.

The North Carolina Medical Society affirms that all individuals and families in North Carolina deserve to live in a safe, healthy environment regardless of income, race, gender, ethnicity, creed, culture, disability, or geography.

The North Carolina Medical Society supports the following principles when discussing, developing, and implementing programs, policies, processes, and projects that impact the natural, social, and built environments in North Carolina, which may directly affect the health and well-being of people in North Carolina.

Therefore, The North Carolina Medical Society:

• Supports the role of the clinician in determining environmentally related illness, disease, or injury, through diagnostic and preventative care.
• Supports the clinician’s commitment to environmental determinants of health, referrals of patients to a specialist if needed, incorporation of environmental questions into their diagnostic screenings, and to report potential environmental exposures to local and state health department officials, preventing future illness and injury for others in North Carolina.
• Supports the protection of the people in North Carolina from evidence based harmful exposure to, toxins, such as pesticides, heavy metals, and other potential exposures with special attention to protecting children, pregnant persons, elderly, and other more susceptible populations.
• Supports the inclusion of clinicians on boards and commissions making decisions on acceptable levels of toxins, pesticides, heavy metals, and other potential exposures that may impact the health of North Carolinians.
• Supports the collaborative efforts of federal, state, and local officials to improve air quality and to strengthen air pollution abatement standards.
• Supports all coastal and inland water quality monitoring activities of federal, state, and local officials, including the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, to keep North Carolina water clean, drinkable, and safe.
• Supports and agrees with scientific consensus on the detrimental impacts of climate change and endorses efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change on the health of communities in North Carolina.
• Supports increased sustainability, recycling, and proper disposal of hazardous materials, with emphasis on the health care industry. These sustainable actions include encouraging the use of recyclable and reusable products in lieu of substances shown to be deleterious to the environment.
• Supports additional training and education for medical students and residents in understanding how environmental toxins may impact health.
• Supports limiting the environmental exposures from chemical producing manufacturing facilities and waste disposal facilities. NCMS acknowledges the disproportionately severe impact these facilities have on historically marginalized communities, especially those in low-income areas, and supports the promotion of environmental justice for all North Carolinians.