Quinn Hane
Research Mentor: Amy Schulz
Mentor Department: Health Behavior and Health Education, Public Health
Author(s): Quinn Hane, Giuliana Motta, Grace Feichter, Alison Walding, Natalie Sampson, Amy Schulz
Session: Session 2 (10:00 AM – 10:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 129
Abstract
In Metro Detroit, environmental exposures such as climate change, air pollution, and water contamination pose a disproportionate threat to the health of communities. Children, people who work outside, those who live near sources of exposure (including highways, construction, and industrial sites), and other groups are at an elevated risk of health outcomes, including respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic conditions. The Michigan Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Diseases Center (MLEEaD) researches environmental health outcomes. The Community Engagement Core of the M-LEEaD Center aims to inform policy and interventions to prevent adverse impacts through this work. The CEC integrates community-engaged research and facilitates the dissemination and translation of MLEEaD research to individuals, communities, and policymakers. To ensure action-based impact, the CEC works with the M-LEEaD Stakeholder Action Board (SAB) to ensure the Centers’ research is relevant to Detroit communities and that findings help to promote community health. Despite the burden that communities in Southeast Michigan face, they are often underrepresented and undersupported in research and policy efforts to safeguard environmental health. To narrow the gap between community action, academic research, and legislation, this ongoing project contains multiple components. First, utilizing literature from MLEEaD research and community-based findings of exposure, data is synthesized into translational fact sheets that disseminate information to communities with recommendations to reduce exposures and advocate for protective policies and programs. A second project, related to the Community Action to Promote Healthy Environments (CAPHE) Partnership, examines definitions of “overburdened communities†(OBCs) in statewide legislation to address the combined impacts of multiple pollutants. As part of this study, I am conducting sensitivity and specificity analyses examining effectiveness of various OBC definitions used in state legislation in actually capturing areas experiencing high rates of air pollution. Both components of this project inform future efforts to safeguard environmental health in Metro Detroit.
