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The Legal Implications of Report Back in Household Exposure Studies
BACKGROUND: Scientists conducting research into household air or dust pollution must decide whether, when, and how to disclose to study participants their individual results. A variety of considerations factor into this decision, but one factor that has not received attention until now is the possib...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
2016
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5089882/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27153111 http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP187 |
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author | Goho, Shaun A. |
author_facet | Goho, Shaun A. |
author_sort | Goho, Shaun A. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Scientists conducting research into household air or dust pollution must decide whether, when, and how to disclose to study participants their individual results. A variety of considerations factor into this decision, but one factor that has not received attention until now is the possibility that study participants’ receipt of their results might create legal duties under environmental, property, landlord–tenant, or other laws. OBJECTIVES: This article examines relevant laws and regulations and explores the scope of participants’ legal duties and the resulting legal and ethical consequences for researchers. Participants could be required in some situations to disclose the presence of certain chemicals when selling or renting their homes or to frequent visitors. The article discusses hypothetical case studies involving the reporting back of results regarding lead, polychlorinated biphenyls, and phthalates. DISCUSSION: The potential legal duties of study participants have both ethical and legal implications for researchers. Issues include whether the legal consequences for participants should affect the decision whether to report back individual results, how researchers should disclose the legal risks to participants during the informed consent process, and whether researchers would be liable to study participants for legal or economic harm arising from reporting study results to them. The review provides recommendations for language that researchers could use in the informed consent process to disclose the legal risks. CONCLUSIONS: Researchers should still report back to participants who want to see their results, but they should disclose the risks of obtaining the information as part of the informed consent process. CITATION: Goho SA. 2016. The legal implications of report back in household exposure studies. Environ Health Perspect 124:1662–1670; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP187 |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5089882 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-50898822016-11-02 The Legal Implications of Report Back in Household Exposure Studies Goho, Shaun A. Environ Health Perspect Review BACKGROUND: Scientists conducting research into household air or dust pollution must decide whether, when, and how to disclose to study participants their individual results. A variety of considerations factor into this decision, but one factor that has not received attention until now is the possibility that study participants’ receipt of their results might create legal duties under environmental, property, landlord–tenant, or other laws. OBJECTIVES: This article examines relevant laws and regulations and explores the scope of participants’ legal duties and the resulting legal and ethical consequences for researchers. Participants could be required in some situations to disclose the presence of certain chemicals when selling or renting their homes or to frequent visitors. The article discusses hypothetical case studies involving the reporting back of results regarding lead, polychlorinated biphenyls, and phthalates. DISCUSSION: The potential legal duties of study participants have both ethical and legal implications for researchers. Issues include whether the legal consequences for participants should affect the decision whether to report back individual results, how researchers should disclose the legal risks to participants during the informed consent process, and whether researchers would be liable to study participants for legal or economic harm arising from reporting study results to them. The review provides recommendations for language that researchers could use in the informed consent process to disclose the legal risks. CONCLUSIONS: Researchers should still report back to participants who want to see their results, but they should disclose the risks of obtaining the information as part of the informed consent process. CITATION: Goho SA. 2016. The legal implications of report back in household exposure studies. Environ Health Perspect 124:1662–1670; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP187 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences 2016-05-06 2016-11 /pmc/articles/PMC5089882/ /pubmed/27153111 http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP187 Text en http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ Publication of EHP lies in the public domain and is therefore without copyright. All text from EHP may be reprinted freely. Use of materials published in EHP should be acknowledged (for example, “Reproduced with permission from Environmental Health Perspectives”); pertinent reference information should be provided for the article from which the material was reproduced. Articles from EHP, especially the News section, may contain photographs or illustrations copyrighted by other commercial organizations or individuals that may not be used without obtaining prior approval from the holder of the copyright. |
spellingShingle | Review Goho, Shaun A. The Legal Implications of Report Back in Household Exposure Studies |
title | The Legal Implications of Report Back in Household Exposure Studies |
title_full | The Legal Implications of Report Back in Household Exposure Studies |
title_fullStr | The Legal Implications of Report Back in Household Exposure Studies |
title_full_unstemmed | The Legal Implications of Report Back in Household Exposure Studies |
title_short | The Legal Implications of Report Back in Household Exposure Studies |
title_sort | legal implications of report back in household exposure studies |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5089882/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27153111 http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP187 |
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