Johnston Jill E, Lopez Mark, Gribble Matthew O, Gutschow Wendy, Austin Christine, Arora Manish
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Commerce, CA, USA.
Health Educ Behav. 2019 Oct;46(1_suppl):71S-80S. doi: 10.1177/1090198119859406.
Advocates for civil rights, environmental justice, and movements promoting social justice require data and may lack trust in public authorities, turning instead to academic scientists to help address their questions. Assessing historical exposure to toxic chemicals, especially in situations of a specific industrial source of pollution affecting a community, is critical for informing appropriate public health and policy responses. We describe a community-driven approach to integrate retrospective environmental hazard exposure assessment with community organizing to address concerns about the extent of exposure to toxic metals in a predominantly working-class, Latinx community living near a now-closed lead-acid battery smelter facility. Named the "Truth Fairy Project" by leaders of the community organization East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, this community-university partnership aimed to assess prenatal and early-life exposures to toxic metals through biomarkers of exposure in baby/deciduous teeth. This partnership integrated community mobilization with empirical research, informing residents about toxic metal exposures and improving the community's capacity to respond to a public health crisis.
民权、环境正义倡导者以及推动社会正义的运动需要数据，并且可能对公共当局缺乏信任，转而求助于学术科学家来帮助解答他们的问题。评估历史上接触有毒化学物质的情况，尤其是在特定工业污染源影响社区的情况下，对于为适当的公共卫生和政策应对提供信息至关重要。我们描述了一种社区驱动的方法，将回顾性环境危害暴露评估与社区组织相结合，以解决一个主要由工人阶级组成的拉丁裔社区对接触有毒金属程度的担忧，该社区位于一个现已关闭的铅酸电池冶炼厂附近。这个由社区组织“东院环境正义社区”的领导人命名为“真相仙女项目”的社区 - 大学合作项目，旨在通过婴儿/乳牙中的暴露生物标志物评估产前和生命早期对有毒金属的暴露情况。这种合作将社区动员与实证研究相结合，让居民了解有毒金属暴露情况，并提高社区应对公共卫生危机的能力。
