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Surrounded by landfills, and toxic and hazardous facilities, Altgeld Gardens is located in a "toxic doughnut". With high rates of environmentally-related conditions, residents have called for a community-based environmental health assessment to improve overall health in their community. The purpose of this study was to investigate the...
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... communities are surrounded by so many hazardous facilities that they are coined to be in a "toxic doughnut" (see Fig. 1). Altgeld Gardens and Phillip Mur- ray Homes (herein referred to as ' Altgeld') is one com- munity that is referred to as such. A public housing development with predominately black residents in the Calumet industrial area in Southeast Chicago, Illinois, Altgeld has a long history of environmental activism through the efforts of People ...
Citations
... Community social capital is a powerful resource in racially segregated communities and is vital to a community's empowerment at combating environmental injustice issues such as lead water contamination and related exposome threats to its' resident's health outcomes [82]. Racial ethnic communities in low income segregated areas are most often cut off from mainstream sources of power and access to local government authorities, including water municipal companies, business districts, local civic governments, and council leaders with agency, that could provide effective solutions [83]. ...
... The collective unity that a community's social capital could bring is needed to build alliances around racial and ethnic local community problems [86], such as lead contaminated water and exposome risks that affect human health outcomes [79]. The human health effects of contaminated drinking water and other environmental hazards require that local community agencies also actively participate in its' demand for safe drinking water and removal of toxic dumping sites where residents reside [82]. Community grass roots organizing and partnering public health and environmental sustainability programs are needed to help communities address the cognitive and physical health implications of lead contaminated water and exposome threats that are lurking at disproportionately higher levels in impoverished racial and ethnic communities across the United States. ...
Although water is considered as essential to life and as an important natural resource, disadvantaged communities such as low-income and minority communities are disproportionately burdened by lead exposure in drinking water. In this paper, we highlight case studies that have received national press coverage as well as recent examples of community lead poisoning hazards that are still ongoing across various regions of the US. We show through these three case studies of Flint, Michigan, Washington D.C., and Birmingham, Alabama that the severity and frequency of this pervasive public health problem is highly concentrated in minority and low-income populations, and thus they bear the brunt of the socioeconomic impacts. We identify the use of sensors to improve detection of hazardous materials and decrease inequities in drinking water contamination. To address water-related equity issues, we call for a sustainable community capacity approach that consists of shared governance between those who live in a community and stakeholders, such as businesses and health services, who have vested interests in it. We conclude by highlighting ways that a community could build collective social capital, safeguarding its environment from lead poisoning through health literacy education. Promoting water literacy is highly significant since water knowledge is crucial towards achieving water sustainability and equity.
... According to residents, because of their exposure to such a broad range of toxins, abnormally high rates of cancer and asthma in young people who grew up on the development have been reported (Hudson 2009;Chase 2020;White and Hall 2015;Chan 2017;Grotto, Cohen, and Olkon 2008b). In 2011-2012 the development looked abandoned; there were more rows of abandoned/boarded up homes than I was able to count. ...
Prior research examining political behavior outside of the United States, has shown that violence can have a mixed impact on political engagement. Building on that work, this research examines whether violence shapes the political lives of poor Black women within the United States. I argue, neighborhood violence in the United States can and often does, shape the political behavior of Black women living below the poverty line in public housing. I use ethnographic data to parse out a conceptual framework which articulates connections between residential violence experienced by Black women living in poverty and their politics. Ultimately, my analysis shows violence can cause isolation and harm, and in doing so dampen political engagement. When residents experienced high levels of violence and did not feel a sense of belonging or connection to their neighborhood, they rarely engage d in visible political behaviors. However, residents who expressed a sense of connection to their neighborhood continued to engage in politics. Those residents who had interpersonal relationships within their residential neighborhood, frequently maintained and sometimes further developed their individual politics, despite and sometimes in response to, personal experiences with residential violence.
... Internationally, many studies on EHL have been performed in order to investigate the literacy level of different communities regarding environmental risk factors, also considering information sources [4]. EHL has been assessed in relation to generic environmental risk factors [7][8][9] or in relation to specific risk factors such as lead [6], endocrine disruptors [10] and pesticides [11]. These studies were performed in different geographic areas such as the United States [6,8,9], Chile [12], China [13] and Taiwan [14]. ...
... EHL has been assessed in relation to generic environmental risk factors [7][8][9] or in relation to specific risk factors such as lead [6], endocrine disruptors [10] and pesticides [11]. These studies were performed in different geographic areas such as the United States [6,8,9], Chile [12], China [13] and Taiwan [14]. However, to our knowledge, EHL and risk perception regarding environmental risk factors have only been investigated by one study performed in Italy [15,16]. ...
Environmental health literacy (EHL) includes knowledge of health effects due to environmental exposure and skills to protect health from environmental risks. This study investigated some aspects about EHL of the Italian adult population. Data were collected through questionnaires (n = 672) and analysed through multivariable logistic regression models. Results showed that participants with incomplete/insufficient self-perceived knowledge of health effects due to environmental risks verified less information about this topic (adjOR = 0.38 (CI95% 0.25–0.59)/0.09 (0.04–0.21); p < 0.001/<0.001), potentially spreading fake news. The self-perceived exposure to pollution was higher in participants living in towns than in rural areas (small, medium, big towns adjOR = 2.37 (1.41–3.97), 2.10 (1.11–3.96), 3.11 (1.53–6.31); p = 0.001, 0.022, 0.002) and lower in participants with incomplete/insufficient knowledge about pollution effects (adjOR = 0.54 (0.32–0.92)/0.30 (0.13–0.67); p = 0.022/0.004), confirming that knowledge is essential to achieve awareness. Since insufficient self-perceived knowledge of pollution effects was negatively associated with the adoption of pro-environmental behaviours (adjOR = 0.37 (0.15–0.90); p = 0.028), EHL was proven to be a virtuous behaviour promoter. Finally, a lack of institutional support, time and cost were identified as barriers to pro-environmental behaviours. This study provided useful data to design prevention programmes, underlined some barriers to pro-environmental behaviours and highlighted the need to promote attitudes and behaviours aimed at contrasting environmental pollution, thus protecting human health.
... Understanding the role community perceptions play in efforts to improve community engagement has been the subject of numerous scholarly studies [6][7][8][9][10][11]. Such understanding is necessary to enable the public health agencies to achieve the goals and expected outcomes associated with community engagement, including, for many community members: ...
Residents at one of the nation’s largest and longest-operating Superfund sites (Butte, Montana) have expressed environmental health risk perceptions that often diverge from those of EPA and other official stakeholders responsible for the investigation and remediation of site contamination aimed at protecting human health and the environment. A random sample of Butte residents participated in a study of how home-based environmental screening influences environmental health perceptions. Participants completed surveys measuring environmental health perceptions before and after a home site screening of soil and drinking water for lead and arsenic conducted by the research team. Local air monitoring for the same contaminants was also completed during the study period. The home-based screening intervention improved the alignment of subjective participant environmental health perceptions with objective environmental screening measures. Key features of the process that helped achieve this effect included (1) co-locating the collection of participant perceptions and individualized screening measurements; (2) sharing environmental screening results in a clear and unbiased manner; and (3) conducting this work independent of agencies and organizations with direct responsibility for Superfund-related cleanup activities. Empowering residents of a Superfund community with knowledge of the specific kinds and levels of environmental contamination in their home environment may help overcome the gap between agency conclusions regarding environmental health risk and the perceptions of community members.
... The highest level of engagement, described as community-led, was demonstrated when communities set their own research questions, selected partners for collaboration, and managed the implementation of solutions and dissemination of findings [87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99]. Fewer studies were categorized as being low-engagement, in which: information flowed in one direction from researchers to community (outreach) [100]; information fed to the community and was also extracted from the community (consult) [52,[101][102][103][104]; or communication was bidirectional, cooperative, and involved community participation (involve) [44,51,[105][106][107][108][109][110]. ...
... On the community engagement continuum, CBPR would traditionally fall into the "collaborate" stage [109], in which community would be partnered with and fully involved in all stages from development to solution; however, about 25% of these articles were actually conducting research at a much lower level of engagement. Among these, the understanding of the CBPR orientation varied greatly, where some implemented participant inquiry methods such as photovoice [52,105], citizen science [51,105], or performance theater [104], and others defined CBPR practice within the context of focus groups and group discussions [44,[100][101][102]. To this extent, the manner in which CBPR is practiced can have varying impacts on the community with respect to moving the needle towards environmental justice. ...
Within an environmental justice frame, capacity-building has been an important component of efforts to address health disparities at the policy, system, and environment levels. While the literature is replete with studies that discuss the necessity of collective action as a means to generate power to overcome inequities, limited attention has been given to the structure of these efforts to build capacity and challenge environmental injustices. This study applies the community engagement continuum as a framework for understanding the scope of capacity-building strategies and the manner in which research investigators engage with their intended target community. Paired teams of independent analysts screened articles for relevance (n = 8452), identified records for content abstraction (n = 163), and characterized relevant studies (n = 58). Many articles discussed community engagement as being either collaborative or shared leadership (n = 32, 55.2%). While the most commonly used capacity-building strategies were organizing/social action (58.6%) and CBPR (50%), few studies were able to make an environmental impact (n = 23; 39.7%), and fewer had a direct legislative policy-related outcome (n = 13; 22.4%). This review identifies levels of collaborative involvement and strategic approaches used for strengthening community capacity in efforts of making transformative policy, systems, and environmental change.
... In the context of community capacity theory, community power represents the ability to create or resist and be influential with respect to changing conditions [32]. When the dimension of community power was identified in the studies we identified as satisfying our inclusion criteria, residents/community members most often used the strength of scientific data to mobilize and address their environmental concerns [47,[68][69][70][71][72]74,75,78,[89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96]98,99,[101][102][103][104]108,[111][112][113][115][116][117][118][119][120]. One example is the work of Bell [89]; in her description of a photovoice project which impacted residents of a coal-mining Appalachian community mobilized through photo-storytelling and shared experiences, she exhibited photo stories for community discussion, and used this content to develop a legislative document for educating about coal slurry injections and impoundments. ...
... The community capacity theory dimension of social and organizational networks encompasses the supportive interactions between groups of people and organizations, formation of new partnerships, and shared decision making [32]. Partnership and networking activities included the intentional involvement and collaboration with concerned citizens, environmental activists, and/or other health professionals for environmental health promotion activities, as well as research planning and sharing of data with community and dissemination of research findings [47,[68][69][70][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][83][84][85][86][87][91][92][93][94][96][97][98][99][101][102][103][104][105][106]107,[111][112][113][114][115][116][117]120,121,123]. Allen et al. describes a diverse coalition comprised of the sovereign Lummi Nation, environmental organizations, faith-based entities, and other citizen groups in the development of a people's initiative [70]. ...
Environmental justice (EJ) efforts aimed at capacity building are essential to addressing environmental health disparities; however, limited attention has been given to describing these efforts. This study reports findings from a scoping review of community–academic partnerships and community-led efforts to address environmental inequities related to air, water, and land pollution in the United States. Literature published in peer-reviewed journals from January 1986 through March 2018 were included, and community capacity theory was applied as a framework for understanding the scope of capacity-building and community change strategies to address EJ concerns. Paired teams of independent analysts conducted a search for relevant articles (n = 8452 citations identified), filtered records for content abstraction and possible inclusion (n = 163) and characterized selected studies (n = 58). Most articles implemented activities that were aligned with community capacity dimensions of citizen participation (96.4%, n = 53), community power (78%, n = 45), leadership (78%, n = 45), and networks (81%, n = 47); few articles identified a direct policy change (22%, n = 13), and many articles discussed the policy implications of findings for future work (62%, n = 36). This review synthesizes three decades of efforts to reduce environmental inequities and identifies strategic approaches used for strengthening community capacity.
... A 16-item questionnaire, in English, was developed from previous studies (Amin et al. 2012;Budak et al. 2005;Müderrisoglu and Altanlar 2011;Naquin et al. 2011;White and Hall 2015). A pre-test of the questionnaire was conducted on five lecturers and three students of each group to assess the ease of comprehension and the degree to which the questions are interpreted and understood by students. ...
Environmental problems have attracted worldwide attention as people are becoming increasingly conscious of a variety of problems like global warming and water and land pollution. The objective of this study was to investigate the levels of environmental health knowledge, perceptions of environmental health risks and practices of university students. An online questionnaire was designed and administered to students at a public university located in the northern region of West Malaysia. All students at Bertam Campus, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Pulau Pinang, studying Diploma in Pharmacy, Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology, Diploma in Environmental Health, Pre-diploma (Science) or Pre-diploma (Commerce), were invited to participate in this study. Only half of the students possessed good knowledge (score ≥76.6%) of environmental health. The level of knowledge was higher among students from science stream education and diploma students compared to pre-diploma students. Of note, most students were aware of the risks of hazards towards the environment, exhibited environmentally friendly consumer practices and had highly supportive pro-environmental attitudes. The results identified the knowledge, perceptions and practices of the students, contributing relevant data to future interventions of environmental health.
... A 16-item questionnaire, in English, was developed from previous studies (Amin et al. 2012;Budak et al. 2005;Müderrisoglu and Altanlar 2011;Naquin et al. 2011;White and Hall 2015). A pre-test of the questionnaire was conducted on five lecturers and three students of each group to assess the ease of comprehension and the degree to which the questions are interpreted and understood by students. ...
