Engaging Citizen Scientists in Emerging Environmental Threats & Disasters

Community residents possess capacity and critical local knowledge of their physical and social environments. Engaging with communities, therefore, can help to promote sound environmental health policies, protect residents and... [ view full abstract ]

Community residents possess capacity and critical local knowledge of their physical and social environments. Engaging with communities, therefore, can help to promote sound environmental health policies, protect residents and workers, help to ensure safe development/use of resources, and inform future planning by building robust understanding of environmental exposures of concern. Such critical information is particularly important to provide to socioeconomically and culturally disadvantaged communities that suffer a disproportionate burden of exposures and disease related to environmental impacts. This session explores the need and opportunities for citizen science (CS) in the face of disasters and emergence of potentially new environmental threats, such as hydrofracking. Presentations will provide case studies that highlight the benefits, as well as the challenges, in using CS approaches to promote environmental public health. Panelists will focus on user-friendly tools and technologies for assessing environmental exposures, data quality & management, and interpretation of information and risk communications. How have citizen scientists, emergency responders and other workers been engaged in disasters? How is CS instrumental in collecting environmental exposure data about hydraulic fracturing, monitoring releases of hazardous pollutants? How can we promote effective CS training and education, interactions with researchers, and engagement with officials to support public health. Discussions will stress the capacity building, education, and hands-on training to empower impacted communities to better understand, measure, and participate in time-critical environmental issues and situations.

Session objectives include discussion of:
1) The important need and role of citizen science in supporting responses to emerging environmental threats and disasters;
2) The use and limitations of exposure assessment tools and data;
3) The generation of useful data through effective planning and partnerships,
4) Interpretation of data, ethical considerations, and communicating results;
5) Promotion of evidence based environmental health actions;
6) Fostering education & training to measure and understand environmental exposures.