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Community Engagement in Observational Human Exposure Studies
Citation:
EGEGHY, P. P., D. HAMMOND, AND R. C. FORTMANN. Community Engagement in Observational Human Exposure Studies. ETHICS IN BIOLOGY, ENGINEERING & MEDICINE. Begell House Incorporated, New York, NY, 1(4):319-333, (2011).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD′s research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
Although observational human exposure studies do not deliberately expose participants to chemicals or environmental conditions, merely involving people as research participants and conducting research inside homes raises ethical issues. Community engagement offers a promising strategy for managing these ethical concerns by ensuring that the community has a voice in the research process. Community engagement ensures that the research aims, study design, and dissemination activities are relevant to the concerns of the community. One approach is to include qualified community members on the research staff as consultants for protocol development and contributors to the data collection and interpretation processes. A second approach is to seek community consultation, creating dialogue to incorporate the experiential knowledge of the residents. Community advisory boards can serve as a liaison between participants and researchers. Lastly, use of community-based participatory research methodologies actively involves the community in each step of the research process, but requires greater willingness to share decision making. Several issues will affect the collaboration: identification of the community, development of trust, awareness of culture differences, power and infrastructure differentials, and stakeholder interaction. Researchers must remember that all ethical action during all phases of the research is necessary for maintaining productive relationships with communities.
URLs/Downloads:
Community Engagement in Observational Human Exposure Studies (PDF, NA pp, 72 KB, about PDF)Ethics in Biology, Engineering & Medicine
