Reporting back environmental exposure data and free choice learning.

Reporting data back to study participants is increasingly being integrated into exposure and biomonitoring studies. Informal science learning opportunities are valuable in environmental health literacy efforts and report back efforts are filling an important gap in these efforts. Using the University of Arizona's Metals Exposure Study in Homes, this commentary reflects on how community-engaged exposure assessment studies, partnered with data report back efforts are providing a new informal education setting and stimulating free-choice learning. Participants are capitalizing on participating in research and leveraging their research experience to meet personal and community environmental health literacy goals. Observations from report back activities conducted in a mining community support the idea that reporting back biomonitoring data reinforces free-choice learning and this activity can lead to improvements in environmental health literacy. By linking the field of informal science education to the environmental health literacy concepts, this commentary demonstrates how reporting data back to participants is tapping into what an individual is intrinsically motivated to learn and how these efforts are successfully responding to community-identified education and research needs

Analyzing Patterns of Community Interest at a Legacy Mining Waste Site to Assess and Inform Environmental Health Literacy Efforts

Understanding a community’s concerns and infor-mational needs is crucial to conducting and improving envi-ronmental health research and literacy initiatives. We hypoth-esized that analysis of community inquiries over time at alegacy mining site would be an effective method for assessingenvironmental health literacy efforts and determining whethercommunity concerns were thoroughly addressed. Through aqualitative analysis, we determined community concerns atthe time of being listed as a Superfund site. We analyzedhow community concerns changed from this starting pointover the subsequent years, and whether: (1) communicationmaterials produced by the U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency and other media were aligned with community con-cerns; and (2) these changes demonstrated a progression of thecommunity’s understanding resulting from community in-volvement and engaged research efforts. We observed thatwhen the Superfund site was first listed, community memberswere most concerned with USEPA management, remediation,site-specific issues, health effects, and environmental monitor-ing efforts related to air/dust and water. Over the next 5 years,community inquiries shifted significantly to include exposureassessment and reduction methods and issues unrelated to thesite, particularly the local public water supply and home watertreatment systems. Such documentation of community inqui-ries over time at contaminated sites is a novel method to assessenvironmental health literacy efforts and determine whethercommunity concerns were thoroughly addressed.12 month embargo; published online: 21 July 2015This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Designing a Comprehensive, Integrated Approach for Environmental Research Translation: The Gardenroots Project to Empower Communities Neighboring Contamination

Challenges at hazardous waste and contaminated sites are persistent, complex, and multifactorial, and unfortunately the progress in implementing solutions is slow. This delay can be attributed to the lack of collaboration, information transfer to the end-user, and partnership building among academia, government and the affected community. As a solution, Environmental Research Translation (ERT), a framework that is rooted in existing participatory models, and encompasses many of the key principles from informal science education and community-based participatory research is proposed. The ERT framework lead to a community-academic partnership called: Gardenroots: The Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona Garden Project. Vegetable gardening in contaminated soils presents a health hazard. A controlled greenhouse study was conducted in parallel with a co-created citizen science program to characterize the uptake of arsenic by homegrown vegetables near the Iron King Mine and Humboldt Smelter Superfund Site in Arizona. Community members, after training, collected soil, water and vegetable samples from their household garden. The greenhouse and home garden arsenic soil concentrations ranged from 2.35 to 533 mg kg⁻¹. In the greenhouse experiment four vegetables were grown in three different soil treatments and a total of 63 home garden produce samples were obtained from 19 properties neighboring the site. All vegetables accumulated arsenic, ranging from 0.01 - 23.0 mg kg⁻¹ dry weight. Bioconcentration factors were determined and arsenic uptake decreased in the order: Asteraceae > Brassicaceae >> Amaranthaceae > Cucurbitaceae > Liliaceae > Solanaceae > Fabaceae. Concentrations of arsenic measured in potable water, soils and vegetable samples were used in conjunction with reported US intake rates to calculate daily dose, excess cancer risk and Hazard Quotient for arsenic. Relative arsenic intake dose decreased in order: potable water > garden soils > well washed homegrown vegetables, and on average, each accounted for 79, 14 and 7%, of a residential gardener's daily arsenic intake dose. The IELCR ranges for vegetables, garden soils and potable water were 10⁻⁸ to 10⁻⁴, 10⁻⁶ to 10⁻⁴; and 10⁻⁵ to 10⁻², respectively. The ERT framework improved environmental health research, information transfer, and risk communication efforts. Incorporating the community in the scientific process lead to individual learning and community-level outcomes

Understanding the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations Associated with Community Gardening to Improve Environmental Public Health Prevention and Intervention.

Considering that community members continue to garden in and near environments impacted by pollutants known to negatively impact human health, this paper seeks to characterize the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of a gardener and elucidate their perception of soil quality and environmental responsibility, awareness of past land use, and gardening behavior. Via semi-structured interviews with community gardeners in the Boston area (N = 17), multifactorial motivations associated with gardening as well as ongoing environmental health challenges were reported. Gardeners are knowledgeable about their garden's historical past and are concerned with soil quality, theft, trash maintenance, animal waste, and loss of produce from foraging animals. Study findings directly inform the field of environmental health exposure assessments by reporting gardening duration, activities that can lead to incidental soil ingestion, and consumption patterns of locally grown produce. This information combined with an understanding of a gardener's intrinsic and extrinsic motivations can be used to develop urban agricultural infrastructure and management strategies, educational programming, and place-based environmental public health interventions

Understanding the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations Associated with Community Gardening to Improve Environmental Public Health Prevention and Intervention

Considering that community members continue to garden in and near environments impacted by pollutants known to negatively impact human health, this paper seeks to characterize the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of a gardener and elucidate their perception of soil quality and environmental responsibility, awareness of past land use, and gardening behavior. Via semi-structured interviews with community gardeners in the Boston area (N = 17), multifactorial motivations associated with gardening as well as ongoing environmental health challenges were reported. Gardeners are knowledgeable about their garden’s historical past and are concerned with soil quality, theft, trash maintenance, animal waste, and loss of produce from foraging animals. Study findings directly inform the field of environmental health exposure assessments by reporting gardening duration, activities that can lead to incidental soil ingestion, and consumption patterns of locally grown produce. This information combined with an understanding of a gardener’s intrinsic and extrinsic motivations can be used to develop urban agricultural infrastructure and management strategies, educational programming, and place-based environmental public health interventions