/pdf/citizen-science-a-study-of-people-expertise-and-sustainable-3po1jwi9qc.pdf

Citizen Science: A Study of People, Expertise and Sustainable Development

The social construction of illness is a major research perspective in medical sociology. This article traces the roots of this perspective and presents three overarching constructionist findings. First, some illnesses are particularly embedded with cultural meaning—which is not directly derived from the nature of the condition—that shapes how society responds to those afflicted and influences the experience of that illness. Second, all illnesses are socially constructed at the experiential level, based on how individuals come to understand and live with their illness. Third, medical knowledge about illness and disease is not necessarily given by nature but is constructed and developed by claims-makers and interested parties. We address central policy implications of each of these findings and discuss fruitful directions for policy-relevant research in a social constructionist tradition. Social constructionism provides an important counterpoint to medicine’s largely deterministic approaches to disease and ...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0022146510383495

The Social Construction of Illness Key Insights and Policy Implications

Contributing Authors Terry Brennan Camroden Associates, Inc. Patrick Dolwick U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Janet L. Gamble U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Vito Ilacqua U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Laura Kolb U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Christopher G. Nolte U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tanya L. Spero U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Lewis Ziska U.S. Department of Agriculture

The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment

https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1016/j.ijgo.2015.09.002

International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics opinion on reproductive health impacts of exposure to toxic environmental chemicals

Toxicity has become a ubiquitous, if uneven, condition. Toxicity can allow us to focus on how forms of life and their constituent relations, from the scale of cells to that of ways of life, are ena...

Toxic politics: Acting in a permanently polluted world.

Background: Indigenous American communities face disproportionate health burdens and environmental health risks compared with the average North American population. These health impacts are issues of both environmental and reproductive justice.

Objectives: In this commentary, we review five indigenous communities in various stages of environmental health research and discuss the intersection of environmental health and reproductive justice issues in these communities as well as the limitations of legal recourse.

Discussion: The health disparities impacting life expectancy and reproductive capabilities in indigenous communities are due to a combination of social, economic, and environmental factors. The system of federal environmental and Indian law is insufficient to protect indigenous communities from environmental contamination. Many communities are interested in developing appropriate research partnerships in order to discern the full impact of environmental contamination and prevent further damage.

Conclusions: Continued research involving collaborative partnerships among scientific researchers, community members, and health care providers is needed to determine the impacts of this contamination and to develop approaches for remediation and policy interventions.

Indigenous peoples of North America: environmental exposures and reproductive justice.

The River Is in Us: Fighting Toxics in a Mohawk Community

BackgroundSocial science research has been central in documenting and analyzing community discovery of environmental exposure and consequential processes. Collaboration with environmental health sc...

Social Science Collaboration with Environmental Health.

Introduction: Fish advisories are issued in an effort to protect human health from exposure to contaminants, but Native American communities may suffer unintended health, social, and cultural consequences as a result of warnings against eating local fish. This paper focuses on the Mohawk community of Akwesasne, which lies downstream from a Superfund site, and explores how fish advisories have impacted fish consumption and health. Methods: 65 Akwesasne community members were interviewed between March 2008 and April 2009. Interviews were semi-structured, lasted from 30–90 minutes and consisted of open-ended questions about the impacts of environmental contamination on the community. Detailed field notes were also maintained during extensive visits between 2007–2011. Interviews were transcribed, and these transcripts as well as the field notes were analyzed in NVivo 8.0. This research received approval from the Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment Research Advisory Committee, as well as the Brown University Institutional Review Board. Results: Three-quarters of the 50 Akwesasne Mohawks interviewed have ceased or significantly curtailed their local fish consumption due to the issuance of fish advisories or witnessing or hearing about deformities on fish. Many of these respondents have turned to outside sources of fish, from other communities or from grocery stores. This change in fish consumption concerns many residents because cultural and social connections developed around fishing are being lost and because fish has been replaced with high-fat high-carb processed foods, which has led to other health complications. One-quarter of the 50 interviewees still eat local fish, but these are generally middle-aged or older residents; fish consumption no longer occurs in the multi-generational social context it once did. Conclusions: Human health in Native American communities such as Akwesasne is intimately tied to the health of the environment. Fish advisories should not be used as an institutional control to protect humans from exposure to contaminants; if Akwesasne are to achieve optimal health, the contaminated environment has to be remediated to a level that supports clean, edible fish.

/pdf/cultural-and-health-implications-of-fish-advisories-in-a-2vhohvc3um.pdf

Cultural and health implications of fish advisories in a Native American community.

Within the context of the broader food sovereignty literature, and with a specific focus on notions of America Indian sovereignty, this article explores how members of thirty-nine different Native American community farming and gardening projects in the United States describe and define food sovereignty, as both concept and method. This article further distinguishes how principles of food sovereignty are being operationalized in the broader goals of promoting community health, sustainability, and local economic systems, and of reclaiming and maintaining tribal culture.

/pdf/you-can-t-say-you-re-sovereign-if-you-can-t-feed-yourself-37koonya5z.pdf

Elizabeth Hoover

Papers

Indigenous peoples of North America: environmental exposures and reproductive justice.

The River Is in Us: Fighting Toxics in a Mohawk Community

Social Science Collaboration with Environmental Health.

Cultural and health implications of fish advisories in a Native American community.

“You Can't Say You're Sovereign if You Can't Feed Yourself”: Defining and Enacting Food Sovereignty in American Indian Community Gardening