Environmental risk and (re)action: air quality, health, and civic involvement in an urban industrial neighbourhood.

This paper explores the links between (perceived) environmental risk and community (re) action in an urban industrial neighbourhood in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. In-depth interviews were conducted with residents of an area with a documented history of adverse air quality, in order to determine the relative influence of social capital (networks, norms, and social trust) and place attachment (sense of belonging in a neighbourhood) in deciding to take civic action around this particular environmental issue. The interviews illustrate the complexity of lay understandings of air pollution, and indicate that social capital is a primary contributor to the decision to take certain kinds of action, while attachment to place plays a lesser role.

A longitudinal study of the health impacts of a petroleum refinery.

Emissions from a petroleum refinery in Oakville, Ont., have been the source of longstanding health concerns among residents in the surrounding community. Between 1992 and 1997, the refinery implemented extensive odour reduction measures through improvements in waste water treatment, in sulphur recovery and combustion. In this paper, we present the main findings of a recent longitudinal analysis using data from community health surveys conducted in 1992 and 1997, before and after implementation of the odour reduction plan. The results show a decline in the frequency of odour perception and annoyance by residents whereas the reporting of cardinal and general symptoms among adults and children was virtually unchanged. Odour perception and annoyance were strongly related to symptom reporting in both years supporting the hypothesis that the effect of refinery emissions on residents' health is odour mediated. The findings extend our understanding of the psychosocial basis of symptom reporting in the vicinity of refineries.

Health, environmental assessments and population health: tools for a complex process.

Place is more than physical and natural environment. The role of biophysical environment has still to be articulated in population health discourse and its relations with human health are fraught with scientific uncertainty and dissension. An environmental impact assessment (EA) evaluates the environmental effects of a proposal--a rational and technical process. Sometimes health assessments are included, usually by quantitative risk assessments which are subject to the limits of scientific knowledge and bedevilled by data limitations. The goal must be to add health to the process, yet the relevant features to include are complex. Impacts are non-specific and they interact and have spatial and temporal characteristics. To integrate environment into population health, there is a need for a physical environment-health database and inter-sectorial policy and action. There is also a need for different types of indicators to measure process, impact and effectiveness, and for new tools (stories, photography) to account for context and values.