Abstract
Environmental justice research driven by academics and policymakers often overlooks the valuable insights and leadership of the communities most impacted by environmental hazards. When institution‐led research approaches are employed, inadequate community ownership and limited institutional accountability hinder the effectiveness of environmental public health interventions. In contrast, a community‐owned and ‐managed approach to environmental justice research can guide community members in developing evidence‐based interventions. This paper outlines a community‐led environmental health assessment survey (sample = 100) and resulting community actions over 6 years (2017–2023) in a Northern California farmworker community with a perceived high prevalence of cancer and exposure to environmental hazards in households, neighborhoods, and job sites. Local resident experts in Knights Landing, CA, documented community risk factors and exposures in collaboration with interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate student‐researchers. The survey instrument focused on environmental hazards identified by local resident experts including vehicular and agricultural pollution, occupational pesticide contact, and sun exposure. Survey findings highlighted the need for targeted interventions to reduce environmental health risks, such as academic outreach programs, county investments in public services, and community‐led mutual aid initiatives. Despite academic reservations about our non‐random sampling method and data collection by local resident experts, our project sparked substantial actions and investments with minimal personnel and financial resources. Local leaders working with student‐researchers developed more effective environmental public health interventions through a community‐owned and ‐managed approach that went beyond the efforts of local regulatory and research institutions.
Plain Language Summary
Agricultural communities in California experience environmental injustice related to toxic exposures in environmental, household, and occupational settings. Environmental justice movements seek to ensure a clean and healthy environment for all communities by mitigating these toxic exposures and amplifying community voices to remove social, economic, and political barriers to healthy environments. This research project started in 2016 when Knights Landing residents revealed their suspicions that environmental carcinogens were potentially causing a high prevalence of cancer in their neighborhood. The community leaders and university researchers partnered to conduct a community survey. The survey results were used by community leaders to establish the following action priorities: household pesticide exposure, addictive substance misuse, access to cancer screening, occupational safety, housing quality, and neighborhood isolation from health services. Feasible and prompt actions were implemented from 2017 to 2023 within the limited resources of this unincorporated community. Communities can initiate a swift, customized, representative environmental health assessment to serve as a starting point when seeking institutional support, funding, or larger research initiatives. Our approach may serve as a model for environmental justice researchers striving to promptly reduce environmental health risks in marginalized communities.
Key Points
Agricultural community residents led a low‐budget environmental health survey to develop evidence‐based public health interventions
Communities can use a carcinogen exposure survey to prioritize and develop actions that reduce cancer burdens in their neighborhood
When residents' priorities drive research directions, community solutions can be promptly launched within limited resource communities