EiJ Hazard: PFAS
FOR ECOGOVLAB/CCEJP CURRICULUM: Use this as a research resource during 11th and 12th Grade Lesson 2 on Hazards.
FOR ECOGOVLAB/CCEJP CURRICULUM: Use this as a research resource during 11th and 12th Grade Lesson 2 on Hazards.
I hope to be involved in projects that aim to gather scientific evidence to inform environmental decision making and advocate for greater equity and justice in environmental governance. Through this work, I hope to learn the skills needed to engage in community based research and leverage community knowledge as expert knowledge. In my department, things are often siloed and issues are only seen through one perspective. I really want to gain more experience in collaborating with a wide array of stakeholders to come up with approaches to mitigate the environmental injustices experienced in under-resourced communities.
The three quotations that more capture the message of the article are:
"Regardless of the specific national roadmaps, however, nuclear safety has returned to the international stage with a vengence." - I love the use of 'vengence' because it's such a powerful descriptor.
"Numerous case studieshave documented that meaningfully engaging lay communities in decisions... enable greater vigilence and raise confidence about individual emergency preparedness."
"The real challenge of a disaster involving nuclear facilities lies in how to handle the unexpected, unpredictible, utterly novel, and barely intelligible chain of events unfolding in real time."
Sheri Fink conducted an interview with one of the doctors who worked at the Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans. She also interviewed people affected by the disaster.
This article has been referenced in 16+ anthropological papers on PMC. Most of the references are for papers that deal with references for HIV in urban communities.
Doctors Without Borders comes with a unique aspect of non-bias for the people they give care. Just as a hospital should have no bias, MSF has no religious affiliation, pays no attention to social classes and does not participate in political battles. This lack of bias allows for the most effect when administering emergency patient care.
Researchers used personal anecdotes of two individuals who, were locked up in Rikers in order to provided a personal view of the conditions of the facilities. The other data was collected from multiple agency's and law firms that have gather data to make a case for either the closing or improvement of Rikers.
A GoogleDoc link to a bibliogrpahy about PFAS in Santa Ana and community-led responses