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IMPROVING THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY'S ABILITY TO CHARACTERIZE HUMAN EXPOSURES IN LOW SES AREAS: PARTICIPANT RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION
Citation:
Leovic, K W., A. Ejire, R W. Williams, V R. Highsmith, AND L S. Sheldon. IMPROVING THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY'S ABILITY TO CHARACTERIZE HUMAN EXPOSURES IN LOW SES AREAS: PARTICIPANT RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION. Presented at ISEA 2000 Exposure Analysis in the 21st Century: Integrating Science, Policy and Quality of Life, Monterey Peninsula, CA, October 24-27, 2000.
Impact/Purpose:
The primary study objective is to quantify the association(s) between day-to-day or experimental variations in ambient air particle mass concentrations and selected physiological functions in elderly persons living in a retirement centers or involved in selected clinical studies. The NERL will conduct exposure studies and provide real-time and integrated PM mass concentration and selected criteria pollutant data to assist the NHEERL collaborators conducting physiological monitoring in establishing selected health effect associations resulting from potential human exposures to PM-related air pollutants.
Description:
EPA's environmental justice program is charged with ensuring that no segment of the population, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, suffers disproportionately from adverse human health or environmental effects and that all people live in clean, healthy, and sustainable communities. Some studies have indicated that minority and low socioeconomic status (SES) populations have higher incidents of disease and death. Human exposure data is needed for low SES populations to determine if they are disproportionately exposed to environmental pollutants. However, limited information is available on recruitment and retention techniques for low SES populations.
During the summer of 2000, EPA's National Exposure Research Laboratory will begin a 12 month Particulate Matter (PM) Panel Study in Raleigh, NC. A primary goal of the study is to compare PM levels measured at the ambient and residential level with those from personal exposure monitoring. The study will include approximately 15 participants representing low SES African-Americans.
EPA is collaborating with Shaw University, a historically black university, to promote outreach and education on human exposure in the local community. We are investigating different techniques for enhanced participant recruitment and retention for human exposure studies conducted in low SES communities. The techniques that will be evaluated and reported on include: working with local community leaders to gain support; conducting outreach through community churches and physicians; gaining support from community groups; and enlisting the support of university employees and residents of local housing projects. We will also evaluate the success of outreach through various media. The results will provide the scientific community with improved information, techniques, and tools for conducting human exposure research in low SES communities.
This work has been funded wholly by the U.S. EPA under assistance agreement #CR-828186-01-0 to Shaw University. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication.