ISEE – NAC Conference 2023
June 19-21, 2023 | Oregon State University • Corvallis, Oregon
Workshops
Full Day
Community-engaged environmental health science: from study design to policy change
Organizers
Tamarra James-Todd
Associate Professor
Harvard Chan School of Public Health
Rachel Morello-Frosch
Professor
University of California, Berkeley
Presenters
Liam O’Fallon, MA (NIEHS)
Tamarra James-Todd, PhD, MPH (Harvard Chan School of Public Health)
Kalya Murray, MA (Bethel Institute for Social Justice)
Yoshi Ornelas Van Horne, PhD (Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health)
Peggy Shepard, BA (WE ACT for Environmental Justice)
Rachel Morello Frosch, PhD (University of California, Berkeley)
Teresa Chin, MJ, MPH (Grist)
Kevin Elliott, PhD (Michigan State University)
Kyle Whyte, PhD (University of Michigan)
Abstract
This full-day workshop will focus on the practice of community engaged research, and entails a half-day of lectures and panel discussions based on the practice of community engaged science. This portion of the day will provide an overview of community engaged research as it relates to environmental health, examples from ongoing research, science translation and policy, media communications and development, and ethics for doing effective science working with communities.
The second half of this workshop will involve workshopping attendees’ submitted work in either the area of manuscripts or grants focused on community engaged research in environmental health. For this, we will host two breakout sessions where 3 attendees will have the opportunity to have their material selected and pre-reviewed (either a manuscript or research grant) by experts in the field. At the time of the workshop event, all attendees will have the chance to select their preference for attending the manuscript or grant review, where an expert will provide real-time feedback for the submitted work. Similar to grant review study sections and journal editorial boards, both submitters and attendees will have the chance to learn from the feedback provided at these workshopping sessions. Upon completion of the full-day workshop, attendees will have learned the following: 1) the continuum of what community engaged research is and how it can be utilized as an effective tool in environmental health research; 2) examples of community engaged research in environmental health; 3) science translation, policy, and effective communication for working with communities in environmental health; 4) ethical considerations when working with communities; 5) applied strategies for grant writing and/or manuscript development for community engaged research.
Half Day
Expanding impactful community-engaged research practices: A hands-on training in using a digital tool to create personal exposure reports for study participants
Organizers
Jennifer Liss Ohayon, PhD
Research Scientist, Environmental Policy and Community-Engaged Research
Silent Spring Institute
Presenters
Jennifer Liss Ohayon, PhD (Silent Spring Institute)
Katherine Franz
Abstract
Our workshop will give participants the practical knowledge and tools needed to share personal results with participants in environmental exposure studies.
As the fields of environmental epidemiology and public health shift toward favoring more transparent and community-engaged research approaches, reporting back personal study results has been emphasized as ethical best practice. Report-back acknowledges participants’ right-to-know their data, empowers them to take action to reduce personal and collective exposures, and facilitates a climate of openness and respect. In addition, report-back can improve study recruitment and retention, and helps researchers discover exposure sources through participant consultation.
Though groups such the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine have recommended that report-back should become routine, many researchers have been slow to adopt the practice, often hindered by the time and skills required for effective report-back. To facilitate researchers in returning high-quality personal results from environmental exposure studies, researchers at Silent Spring developed the Digital Exposure Report-Back Interface (DERBI) with NIH support. This interactive, web-based tool presents personalized chemical results in a way that study participants can easily understand and makes it easier for researchers to share personal results in studies of all sizes. Generated reports can include information about chemicals detected, potential health effects, strategies to reduce exposures, and overall study findings. DERBI also includes analytical tools that help researchers interpret results, including identifying common chemical mixtures.
The workshop will include a 30-minute presentation and discussion on ethical and practical considerations and best practices for report-back followed by a 2.5-hour session in which researchers gain hands-on practice in report preparation using their own data or a provided model dataset. Using an easy-to-use DERBI dashboard, researchers without software expertise will gain skills needed to create their own high-quality biomonitoring reports for print, computer or smartphones.
Organizer
Diana Rohlman
Associate Professor, Sr. Researcher
Oregon State University
Presenters
Diana Rohlman (Oregon State University)
Nicole Errett (University of Washington)
Erica Fleishman (Oregon State University)
Aubrey Miller (NIEHS)
Christine Loftus (University of Washington)
Allison Sherris (University of Washington)
Ann Liu (NIEHS contractor)
Tania Busch Isaksen (University of Washington)
Rebecca J. Schmidt (University of California, Davis)
Molly Kile (Oregon State University)
Emily Ho (Oregon State University)
Abstract
Wildfires are increasing in size and severity, leading to longer wildfire seasons and a higher number of days wherein air quality is considered poor. Wildfire smoke exposure is linked to adverse respiratory, cardiovascular, and perinatal health and to mortality. Gaps remain in understanding the health impacts of wildfire smoke exposure, including smoke composition, methods for measuring exposure and characterizing health outcomes, exposure pathways, and differential effects across the lifespan, particularly for wildland urban interface fires where exposures are more complex, toxic, and direct. Translation of observational research to interventions to reduce health risks from wildfire smoke, and implementation research on proposed interventions is needed. We will use interactive, discussion-based activities to characterize priorities for research on wildfire smoke exposure across the lifespan.
Participants will complete a pre-workshop survey to identify research gaps and priorities to inform interactive elements. First, the workshop will identify areas of collaboration amongst attendees, who will select a topic (wildfire smoke and perinatal health, risk communications, implementation of public health interventions, exposure and data science) and join colleagues to discuss shared interests and priority actions, then repeat with a second topic. Attendees will then inform research priorities by engaging in facilitated activities to identify and prioritize research needs. Using a World Café format, participants will rotate between tables where they will discuss pre-identified topics (wildfire smoke composition, exposure across the lifespan, intervention and implementation, data integration, data collection approaches/methods, risk communications) and identify and prioritize research needs on wildfire smoke exposure across the lifespan. Spending 5-6 minutes at each table before rotating, participants will use dot-voting, Likert scales, and ranking. A facilitator at each table will provide context for the activity and desired outcomes. This workshop will help identify public health and scientific needs and facilitate new collaborations associated with wildfire smoke exposure across the lifespan.
Organizer
Swati Rayasam
Science Associate
UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment
Presenters
Tracey Woodruff PhD, MPH, Professor and Director, Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, Department of Ob/Gyn & the Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco
Wendy Heiger-Bernays, PhD, Clinical Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health
Laura Vandenberg, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences
Julia Varshavsky, PhD MPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University
Maricel Maffini, PhD, Independent Consultant
Abstract
The manufacture and production of industrial chemicals continues to increase, with hundreds of thousands of chemicals and chemical mixtures used worldwide, leading to widespread population exposures and resultant health impacts. Low-wealth communities and communities of color often bear disproportionate burdens of exposure and impact; all compounded by regulatory delays to the detriment of public health.
Our approach to human health studies has focused on characterizing disease endpoints rather than preventing health harm, however this approach is often inadequate to understand complex human and environmental health outcomes. Although epidemiological studies present a powerful tool for policy change, there is a critical need to upgrade the use of science in the chemical hazard and risk assessment processes that underpin chemical policy to protect public health. Given the impact of environmental chemical exposures on public health and the need to integrate contemporary science into decision-making in the United States (US) and globally, we worked across multiple disciplines, including epidemiology, toxicology, law, and sociology to develop recommendations to reduce harmful chemical exposures and improve scientific methods to identify chemical harms and assess their risks.
We aim to show how inadequacies in these methods, including failing to: quantify risk across a population for non-cancer health effects, identify and fully account for intrinsic (e.g., genetics) and extrinsic (e.g., racism) factors that increase susceptibility, and conduct exposure assessments that consider realistic exposure scenarios underestimate risk and harm health. Researchers, risk assessors, and policy makers must better understand how appropriate use of advanced scientific methods can contribute to health-protective decisions with the goal of reducing health inequities and creating a world where we all can thrive. Our recommendations can be applied to current policies governing chemicals, and specifically address how the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducts exposure, hazard, and risk assessment and risk management analyses.