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Pollution Reporter Workflows

Carly.Rospert
Annotation of

The Pollution Reporter app allows users to: (1) make a pollution report of something they see or sense, (2) search different polluters in Chemical Valley and access data on their emissions, (3) look up health symptoms and see what chemical pollutants might be linked to these symptoms, and (4) learn about specific chemical pollutants.

The workflows are meant to provide impacted individuals access to important information that can help them link health harms to specific polluters and chemicals from the nearby Chemical Valley. The reporting workflow also allows individuals to create reports, and thus their own data, on things they see or sense that might not be captured by industry monitoring systems. In this way, workflows both streamline access to important and relevant information while also enabling the capturing of experiential data.

Pollution Reporter Data

Carly.Rospert
Annotation of

The Pollution Reporter app includes data on: (1) polluters in Chemical Valley and a list of its chemical emissions, (2) health symptoms and the chemicals that are associated with that symptom, and (3) chemical pollutants that are emitted in Chemical Valley and the associated health impacts and polluters. Users are encouraged to search within these three categories and see the interconnectedness between polluters, chemical pollutants, and health symptoms. This helps users attach responsibility for health harms to chemicals and the corporations that make them. Users are also encouraged to submit their own data through a pollution report of something they see or sense. 

The Pollution Reporter App translates and connects government, industry-reported, and peer reviewed sources of data into accessible information about the known health effects of pollutants. The creators of the app recognized the limitations to government data in that it is (1) created by Industry, (2) disconnected from the health harms that pollution causes, (3) hard to get, (4) inaccurate, tending to underreport harms, (5) out-dated, (6) and usually organized one chemical at a time, not accounting for cumulative exposure of multiple chemicals. 

Participation in Pollution Reporter

Carly.Rospert
Annotation of

The key participation that the Pollution Reporter app supports is the ability for a user to report a pollution event, spill, or leak to the Ontario Ministry of Environment, making it easier for community members to report problems to the Spill Action Centre. The app assists in making the report, which is then sent through the users own email, and allows users to share on social media or keep a record of their reports.

This  reporting workflow is one of the main features of the app (one of four) and is located in the bottom navigation bar as the report icon (next to the polluters, chemicals, and health symptoms icons). 

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Zackery.White

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) was founded in 1980 by physicians from the United States and the former Soviet Union who shared a common commitment to the prevention of nuclear war between their two countries. In 1985, the organization recieved the nobel peace prize for their efforts.

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Zackery.White

IPPNW is comprised of national medical organizations, not individuals, with a common commitment to the abolition of nuclear weapons and the prevention of war. Each organization may range in size from a handful of dedicated physicians and medical students to tens of thousands of activists and their supporters.

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Zackery.White

I can't really find any concise information in regards to the IIPNW having direct publications or legislation passed. They seem as more of an organization that compiles information, and presents at global colloquiums in order to swy opinions for preventions of escalation. They also have many outreach programs for new physicians that help support the idea of nuclear prevention. 

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Zackery.White

The largest event that affects this organization was the Cold War, becuase it was the reason that it was formed in 1980. The organization cites the first principal of the medical profession — that doctors have an obligation to prevent what they cannot treat. The website states that experts come together to explain the medical and scientific facts about nuclear war to policy makers and to the public, and to advocate for the elimination of nuclear weapons from the world’s arsenals.