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“They Kept Going for Answers”: Knowledge, Capacity, and Environmental Health Literacy in Michigan’s PBB Contamination

The Michigan PBB Oral History Project documented community residents’ descriptions of a large-scale chemical contamination—the PBB contamination—that occurred in Michigan in 1973. These oral histories document residents’ and others’ experiences during and after the contamination. We conducted a grou...

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Autores principales: Lebow-Skelley, Erin, Fremion, Brittany B., Quinn, Martha, Makled, Melissa, Keon, Norman B., Jelenek, Jane, Crowley, Jane-Ann, Pearson, Melanie A., Schulz, Amy J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9779199/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36554573
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416686
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author Lebow-Skelley, Erin
Fremion, Brittany B.
Quinn, Martha
Makled, Melissa
Keon, Norman B.
Jelenek, Jane
Crowley, Jane-Ann
Pearson, Melanie A.
Schulz, Amy J.
author_facet Lebow-Skelley, Erin
Fremion, Brittany B.
Quinn, Martha
Makled, Melissa
Keon, Norman B.
Jelenek, Jane
Crowley, Jane-Ann
Pearson, Melanie A.
Schulz, Amy J.
author_sort Lebow-Skelley, Erin
collection PubMed
description The Michigan PBB Oral History Project documented community residents’ descriptions of a large-scale chemical contamination—the PBB contamination—that occurred in Michigan in 1973. These oral histories document residents’ and others’ experiences during and after the contamination. We conducted a grounded theory qualitative analysis of 31 oral histories to examine the experiences of community members, researchers, lawyers, and others who actively sought out and contributed essential information about the contamination and its impacts. Our findings highlight several challenges encountered in the development of this knowledge including four central themes—contested knowledge, community skills, inaction, and uncertainty. Integrating environmental health literacy, community capacity, and contested illness frameworks, we examine the contributions of community residents, scientists (from inside and outside the community), and others to the development of knowledge to inform decisions and sustain action regarding this large-scale contamination. We close with a discussion of lessons learned regarding efforts to build environmental health knowledge within uncertain and often contested contexts and for promoting environmental health and action related to large-scale chemical contaminations. Our findings suggest the importance of integrated frameworks for examining and promoting the critical role of community skills, leadership, participation, sense of community, and community power in promoting environmental health.
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spelling pubmed-97791992022-12-23 “They Kept Going for Answers”: Knowledge, Capacity, and Environmental Health Literacy in Michigan’s PBB Contamination Lebow-Skelley, Erin Fremion, Brittany B. Quinn, Martha Makled, Melissa Keon, Norman B. Jelenek, Jane Crowley, Jane-Ann Pearson, Melanie A. Schulz, Amy J. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The Michigan PBB Oral History Project documented community residents’ descriptions of a large-scale chemical contamination—the PBB contamination—that occurred in Michigan in 1973. These oral histories document residents’ and others’ experiences during and after the contamination. We conducted a grounded theory qualitative analysis of 31 oral histories to examine the experiences of community members, researchers, lawyers, and others who actively sought out and contributed essential information about the contamination and its impacts. Our findings highlight several challenges encountered in the development of this knowledge including four central themes—contested knowledge, community skills, inaction, and uncertainty. Integrating environmental health literacy, community capacity, and contested illness frameworks, we examine the contributions of community residents, scientists (from inside and outside the community), and others to the development of knowledge to inform decisions and sustain action regarding this large-scale contamination. We close with a discussion of lessons learned regarding efforts to build environmental health knowledge within uncertain and often contested contexts and for promoting environmental health and action related to large-scale chemical contaminations. Our findings suggest the importance of integrated frameworks for examining and promoting the critical role of community skills, leadership, participation, sense of community, and community power in promoting environmental health. MDPI 2022-12-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9779199/ /pubmed/36554573 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416686 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lebow-Skelley, Erin
Fremion, Brittany B.
Quinn, Martha
Makled, Melissa
Keon, Norman B.
Jelenek, Jane
Crowley, Jane-Ann
Pearson, Melanie A.
Schulz, Amy J.
“They Kept Going for Answers”: Knowledge, Capacity, and Environmental Health Literacy in Michigan’s PBB Contamination
title “They Kept Going for Answers”: Knowledge, Capacity, and Environmental Health Literacy in Michigan’s PBB Contamination
title_full “They Kept Going for Answers”: Knowledge, Capacity, and Environmental Health Literacy in Michigan’s PBB Contamination
title_fullStr “They Kept Going for Answers”: Knowledge, Capacity, and Environmental Health Literacy in Michigan’s PBB Contamination
title_full_unstemmed “They Kept Going for Answers”: Knowledge, Capacity, and Environmental Health Literacy in Michigan’s PBB Contamination
title_short “They Kept Going for Answers”: Knowledge, Capacity, and Environmental Health Literacy in Michigan’s PBB Contamination
title_sort “they kept going for answers”: knowledge, capacity, and environmental health literacy in michigan’s pbb contamination
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9779199/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36554573
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416686
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