Improving Environmental Health Literacy and Justice through Environmental Exposure Results Communication

Monica D. Ramirez-Andreotta, Julia Green Brody, Nathan Lothrop, Miranda Loh, Paloma I. Beamer and Phil Brown
Additional contact information
Monica D. Ramirez-Andreotta: Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, 1177 East 4th Street, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Julia Green Brody: Silent Spring Institute, 320 Nevada Street, Suite 302, Newton, MA 02460, USA
Nathan Lothrop: Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona 1295 N Martin Ave, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA
Miranda Loh: Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona 1295 N Martin Ave, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA
Paloma I. Beamer: Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona 1295 N Martin Ave, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA
Phil Brown: Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, 310INV, Boston, MA 02115, USA

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-27

Abstract: Understanding the short- and long-term impacts of a biomonitoring and exposure project and reporting personal results back to study participants is critical for guiding future efforts, especially in the context of environmental justice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate learning outcomes from environmental communication efforts and whether environmental health literacy goals were met in an environmental justice community. We conducted 14 interviews with parents who had participated in the University of Arizona’s Metals Exposure Study in Homes and analyzed their responses using NVivo, a qualitative data management and analysis program. Key findings were that participants used the data to cope with their challenging circumstances, the majority of participants described changing their families’ household behaviors, and participants reported specific interventions to reduce family exposures. The strength of this study is that it provides insight into what people learn and gain from such results communication efforts, what participants want to know, and what type of additional information participants need to advance their environmental health literacy. This information can help improve future report back efforts and advance environmental health and justice.

Keywords: biomonitoring; exposure assessment; environmental health literacy; environmental justice; hazardous waste; contextual model of learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/7/690/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/7/690/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:7:p:690-:d:73576

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().