Communicating Public Health Risks from the Bottom-Up: A Look at the South and Southwest Philadelphia Environmental Health Characterization Study. M. A. Fox and J. S. Litt, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 624 N. Broadway St., Student Box 779, Baltimore, Maryland 21205
Risk communication in a complex urban environment presents daunting challenges. The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health undertook such challenges in its environmental health characterization of South and Southwest Philadelphia. As students, we observed and participated in a holistic, community-driven risk characterization process from its inception and design to its implementation. We will examine a real world risk communication effort in the context of this broader risk characterization study.
This study is a model for community participation that is consistent with recent studies such as the NRC report, Understanding Risk: Informing Decisions in a Democratic Society and the Presidential/Congressional Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management report, Risk Assessment and Risk Management in Regulatory Decision-Making. As recommended in these documents, communities and other affected parties were involved early and often throughout the study process and were critical players in the setting and implementing the research agenda.
Our analysis used the participatory rationales and criteria for success described in Understanding Risk: Decision-Making in a Democratic Society to examine whether the education series met the goals of risk communication and characterization. These observations will be presented along with a brief discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the education series, lessons learned and subsequent activities that have been initiated since the release of the final report.
Go to . . .