School of Public Health

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1633

The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.

Note: Prior to July 1, 2007, the School of Public Health was named the College of Health & Human Performance.

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Subject: search.filters.subject.environmental justice

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    EXPLORING ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE AND AIR POLLUTION-RELATED HEALTH EFFECTS IN PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND
    (2024) Ravichandran, Vivek; Wilson, Sacoby M; Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Polluting facilities have been historically sited in disadvantaged communities of color, known as environmental justice (EJ) communities, due to limited perceived community resistance and mobilization. There is a plethora of air quality disparity research but a gap persists in ascertaining the health inequities associated with community exposure to air pollutants, such as particulate matter (PM) and black carbon (BC), at the neighborhood resolution. To address this gap in EJ science, this dissertation has four specific aims: (1) Implement the community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework to expand and enhance the community-engaged infrastructure to ensure the success of Aims 2-4; (2) Identify spatiotemporal pollution patterns across the Route 50-Sheriff Road-Kenilworth Ave Quadrant; (3) Determine short-term health impacts associated with community exposure to PM and BC via a panel study involving pulse oximeters to correlate elevated PM and BC levels to blood oxygen saturation (SpO2 levels); and (4) Conduct semi-structured interviews and use NVivo to perform thematic analysis on barriers and motivating factors towards passing EJ legislation. My findings demonstrated that a more diverse and representative community advisory board (CAB) allowed us to successfully conduct research while maintaining trust within the community, and bringing in voices from various demographic groups, including different ethnicities, ages, income levels, and geographic locations. This led to a more comprehensive understanding of the community's concerns, priorities, and needs related to air quality. Additionally, my findings revealed that both PM and BC levels were elevated during morning rush periods. PM levels did not exceed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) annual standards, but did exceed the more protective World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Robert Gray Elementary School exhibited higher PM levels than the other Quadrant sites. Furthermore, BC levels at Fairmount Heights High School were above the threshold defined in the literature above which cognitive inhibition and poor respiratory outcomes have been observed, highlighting the effect of air pollution exposure on vulnerable life stages in the Quadrant. BC peaks were also observed 10-15x these unofficial health-based thresholds. Using a pulse oximetry panel study, we found previous and concurrent day lagged fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was weakly associated with reductions in SpO2. Using NVivo, we identified 18 parent codes and 27 subcategories from our semi-structured interviews with Maryland policymakers/agency staff. Key barriers were: (1) the lack of strategic EJ plans; (2) limited community engagement particularly from those living in communities impacted by environmental injustice; and (3) interagency and policymaker collaboration exacerbated by a clear partisan divide. These findings provide evidence of previous misclassified exposure assessments from sparse existing regulatory monitors, present strategies for overcoming EJ barriers in the state, and underscore the importance of collaboration, community engagement, and policy reform to address environmental disparities and promote environmental justice.
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    A Critical Review of an Authentic and Transformative Environmental Justice and Health Community — University Partnership
    (MDPI, 2014-12-11) Wilson, Sacoby; Campbell, Dayna; Dalemarre, Laura; Fraser-Rahim, Herb; Williams, Edith
    Distressed neighborhoods in North Charleston (SC, USA) are impacted by the cumulative effects of multiple environmental hazards and expansion of the Port of Charleston. The Low Country Alliance for Model Communities (LAMC) built an environmental justice partnership to address local concerns. This case study examines the process of building and sustaining a successful transformative and authentic community-university partnership. We apply the framework established by Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH), focusing on four of the nine principles of Good Practice of Community Campus Partnerships.
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    Methods for Evaluating the Combined Effects of Chemical and Nonchemical Exposures for Cumulative Environmental Health Risk Assessment
    (MDPI, 2018-12-10) Payne-Sturges, Devon C.; Scammell, Madeleine K.; Levy, Jonathan I.; Cory-Slechta, Deborah A.; Symanski, Elaine; Carr Shmool, Jessie L.; Laumbach, Robert; Linder, Stephen; Clougherty, Jane E.
    Cumulative risk assessment (CRA) has been proposed as a means of evaluating possible additive and synergistic effects of multiple chemical, physical and social stressors on human health, with the goal of informing policy and decision-making, and protecting public health. Routine application of CRA to environmental regulatory and policy decision making, however, has been limited due to a perceived lack of appropriate quantitative approaches for assessing combined effects of chemical and nonchemical exposures. Seven research projects, which represented a variety of disciplines, including population health science, laboratory science, social sciences, geography, statistics and mathematics, were funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help address this knowledge gap. We synthesize key insights from these unique studies to determine the implications for CRA practice and priorities for further research. Our analyses of these seven projects demonstrate that the necessary analytical methods to support CRA are available but are ultimately context-dependent. These projects collectively provided advancements for CRA in the areas of community engagement, characterization of exposures to nonchemical stressors, and assessment of health effects associated with joint exposures to chemical and psychosocial stressors.
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    Rapid Health Impact Assessment of a Proposed Poultry Processing Plant in Millsboro, Delaware
    (MDPI, 2019-09-16) Baskin-Graves, Leah; Mullen, Haley; Aber, Aaron; Sinisterra, Jair; Ayub, Kamran; Amaya-Fuentes, Roxana; Wilson, Sacoby
    In 2013, Allen Harim Foods purchased the former site of a Vlasic Pickle plant in Millsboro, Delaware, and proposed to convert the site into a poultry processing plant that would process approximately two million birds weekly. This generated concerns about the proposed plant’s potential to impact health and quality of life among residents. We conducted a rapid health impact assessment (HIA) of the proposed plant to assess baseline environmental health issues in the host community and projected impacts. The scoping and baseline assessment revealed social, economic, and health disparities in the region. We also determined that residents in the area were already underserved and overburdened with pollution from multiple environmental hazards near the proposed plant including two sites contaminated with hazardous wastes, a power plant, and another poultry processing plant. The projected size and amount of poultry to be processed at the plant would likely cause increased levels of air, soil and water pollution, additional odor issues, and increased traffic and related pollution and safety issues. The information generated from the HIA formed the basis of a campaign to raise awareness about potential problems associated with the new facility and to foster more engagement of impacted residents in local decision-making about the proposed plant. In the end, the HIA helped concerned residents oppose the new poultry processing plant. This case study provides an example of how HIAs can be used as a tool to educate residents, raise awareness about environmental justice issues, and enhance meaningful engagement in local environmental decision-making processes.
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    Framing Environmental Health Decision-Making: The Struggle over Cumulative Impacts Policy
    (MDPI, 2021-04-09) Payne-Sturges, Devon C.; Sangaramoorthy, Thurka; Mittmann, Helen
    Little progress has been made to advance U.S. federal policy responses to growing scientific findings about cumulative environmental health impacts and risks, which also show that many low income and racial and ethnic minority populations bear a disproportionate share of multiple environmental burdens. Recent scholarship points to a “standard narrative” by which policy makers rationalize their slow efforts on environmental justice because of perceived lack of data and analytical tools. Using a social constructivist approach, ethnographic research methods, and content analysis, we examined the social context of policy challenges related to cumulative risks and impacts in the state of Maryland between 2014 and 2016. We identified three frames about cumulative impacts as a health issue through which conflicts over such policy reforms materialize and are sustained: (a) perceptions of evidence, (b) interpretations of social justice, and (c) expectations of authoritative bodies. Our findings illustrate that policy impasse over cumulative impacts is highly dependent on how policy-relevant actors come to frame issues around legislating cumulative impacts, rather than the “standard narrative” of external constraints. Frame analysis may provide us with more robust understandings of policy processes to address cumulative risks and impacts and the social forces that create health policy change.
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    A Critical Review of an Authentic and Transformative Environmental Justice and Health Community — University Partnership
    (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2014-12-11) Wilson, Sacoby; Campbell, Dayna; Dalemarre, Laura; Fraser-Rahim, Herb; Williams, Edith
    Distressed neighborhoods in North Charleston (SC, USA) are impacted by the cumulative effects of multiple environmental hazards and expansion of the Port of Charleston. The Low Country Alliance for Model Communities (LAMC) built an environmental justice partnership to address local concerns. This case study examines the process of building and sustaining a successful transformative and authentic community-university partnership. We apply the framework established by Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH), focusing on four of the nine principles of Good Practice of Community Campus Partnerships.
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    Health-Related Communication Behaviors of Environmental Action Gatekeepers: A Qualitative Study
    (2015) Pomerantz, Sarah; Aldoory, Linda; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore behaviors of community members regarding environmental health information. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with environmental action gatekeepers from Prince George’s County, Maryland and Wards 7 and 8 of the District of Columbia to identify health-related communication behaviors and how they make meaning of those behaviors. Participants engaged in a range of behaviors to acquire, manage, and transmit information related to local environmental health issues. Although different behavior patterns did not emerge among activists versus advocates, a number of factors including perceived community constraints and informational subjective norms were identified as potential influences on communication behaviors. These findings support existing theoretical models, and suggest future research on how communicative behaviors among environmental health and environmental justice advocates may differ from those working on traditional ecological environmental issues. Findings suggest future opportunities to improve environmental health information sufficiency in the region.