IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v11y2014i6p5684-5697d36520.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Engaging a Chemical Disaster Community: Lessons from Graniteville

Author

Listed:
  • Winston Abara

    (Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine, Satcher Health Leadership Institute, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30310, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Sacoby Wilson

    (Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • John Vena

    (Department of Public Health Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA)

  • Louisiana Sanders

    (Graniteville Community Coalition, Graniteville, SC 29829, USA)

  • Tina Bevington

    (GRACE Study Center, Graniteville, SC 29829, USA)

  • Joan M. Culley

    (College of Nursing, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA)

  • Lucy Annang

    (Department of Health promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA)

  • Laura Dalemarre

    (Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA)

  • Erik Svendsen

    (Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

Community engagement remains a primary objective of public health practice. While this approach has been adopted with success in response to many community health issues, it is rarely adopted in chemical disaster response. Empirical research suggests that management of chemical disasters focuses on the emergency response with almost no community engagement for long-term recovery. Graniteville, an unincorporated and medically underserved community in South Carolina was the site of one of the largest chlorine exposures by a general US population. Following the immediate response, we sought community participation and partnered with community stakeholders and representatives in order to address community-identified health and environmental concerns. Subsequently, we engaged the community through regular town hall meetings, harnessing community capacity, forming coalitions with existing local assets like churches, schools, health centers, and businesses, and hosting community-wide events like health picnics and screenings. Information obtained from these events through discussions, interviews, and surveys facilitated focused public health service which eventually transitioned to community-driven public health research. Specific outcomes of the community engagement efforts and steps taken to ensure sustainability of these efforts and outcomes will be discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Winston Abara & Sacoby Wilson & John Vena & Louisiana Sanders & Tina Bevington & Joan M. Culley & Lucy Annang & Laura Dalemarre & Erik Svendsen, 2014. "Engaging a Chemical Disaster Community: Lessons from Graniteville," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-14, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:11:y:2014:i:6:p:5684-5697:d:36520
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/6/5684/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/6/5684/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mills, M.A. & Edmondson, D. & Park, C.L., 2007. "Trauma and stress response among Hurricane Katrina evacuees," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(S1), pages 116-123.
    2. Brodie, M. & Weltzien, E. & Altman, D. & Blendon, R.J. & Benson, J.M., 2006. "Experiences of Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston shelters: Implications for future planning," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(8), pages 1402-1408.
    3. Maurie J. Cohen, 1995. "Technological Disasters and Natural Resource Damage Assessment: An Evaluation of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 71(1), pages 65-82.
    4. Jennifer D. Runkle & Hongmei Zhang & Wilfried Karmaus & Amy B. Martin & Erik R. Svendsen, 2012. "Prediction of Unmet Primary Care Needs for the Medically Vulnerable Post-Disaster: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis of Health System Responses," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-14, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rocío Calvo & Mariana Arcaya & Christopher Baum & Sarah Lowe & Mary Waters, 2015. "Happily Ever After? Pre-and-Post Disaster Determinants of Happiness Among Survivors of Hurricane Katrina," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 427-442, April.
    2. Matsubayashi, Tetsuya & Sawada, Yasuyuki & Ueda, Michiko, 2013. "Natural disasters and suicide: Evidence from Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 126-133.
    3. Paxson, Christina & Fussell, Elizabeth & Rhodes, Jean & Waters, Mary, 2012. "Five years later: Recovery from post traumatic stress and psychological distress among low-income mothers affected by Hurricane Katrina," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 150-157.
    4. Sastry, Narayan & Gregory, Jesse, 2013. "The effect of Hurricane Katrina on the prevalence of health impairments and disability among adults in New Orleans: Differences by age, race, and sex," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 121-129.
    5. Loureiro, Maria L. & Ribas, Alfonso & Lopez, Edelmiro & Ojea, Elena, 2006. "Estimated costs and admissible claims linked to the Prestige oil spill," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 48-63, August.
    6. Tatyana Deryugina & David Molitor, 2020. "Does When You Die Depend on Where You Live? Evidence from Hurricane Katrina," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(11), pages 3602-3633, November.
    7. Sarah R Lowe & Ethan J Raker & Mary C Waters & Jean E Rhodes, 2020. "Predisaster predictors of posttraumatic stress symptom trajectories: An analysis of low-income women in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-19, October.
    8. Amy Lesen, 2012. "Oil, floods, and fish: the social role of environmental scientists," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 2(3), pages 263-270, September.
    9. Kebin Deng & Zhong Ding & Yalu Wang, 2020. "Peasant youth experiences of CEOs, risk aversion and corporate performance," Rationality and Society, , vol. 32(3), pages 278-312, August.
    10. Thais Waideman Niquito & Fernando Pozzobon & Vinícius Halmenschlager & Felipe Garcia Ribeiro, 2021. "Human-made disasters and economic impact for a developing economy: evidence from Brazil," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 109(3), pages 2313-2341, December.
    11. Widener, Michael J. & Horner, Mark W., 2011. "A hierarchical approach to modeling hurricane disaster relief goods distribution," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 821-828.
    12. Jennifer M. Connolly & Casey Klofstad & Joseph Uscinski, 2020. "Leaving home ain’t easy: Citizen compliance with local government hurricane evacuation orders," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 3(2).
    13. Morris, Katherine Ann & Deterding, Nicole M., 2016. "The emotional cost of distance: Geographic social network dispersion and post-traumatic stress among survivors of Hurricane Katrina," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 56-65.
    14. Adam Pel & Michiel Bliemer & Serge Hoogendoorn, 2012. "A review on travel behaviour modelling in dynamic traffic simulation models for evacuations," Transportation, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 97-123, January.
    15. Jennifer D. Runkle & Hongmei Zhang & Wilfried Karmaus & Amy B. Martin & Erik R. Svendsen, 2012. "Prediction of Unmet Primary Care Needs for the Medically Vulnerable Post-Disaster: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis of Health System Responses," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-14, September.
    16. Dongkwan Lee & Soyeon Yoon & Eun-Seon Park & Yuseung Kim & D.K. Yoon, 2018. "Factors Contributing to Disaster Evacuation: The Case of South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-16, October.
    17. Gabriella Rundblad & Olivia Knapton & Paul R. Hunter, 2014. "The Causes and Circumstances of Drinking Water Incidents Impact Consumer Behaviour: Comparison of a Routine versus a Natural Disaster Incident," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-16, November.
    18. Odeya Cohen & Stav Shapira & Limor Aharonson-Daniel & Judith Shamian, 2019. "Confidence in Health-Services Availability during Disasters and Emergency Situations—Does it Matter?—Lessons Learned from an Israeli Population Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-12, September.
    19. Hoang, Trung Xuan & Le, Duong Trung & Nguyen, Ha Minh & Vuong, Nguyen Dinh Tuan, 2020. "Labor market impacts and responses: The economic consequences of a marine environmental disaster," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    20. Dian Sun & Jee Eun Kang & Rajan Batta & Yan Song, 2017. "Optimization of Evacuation Warnings Prior to a Hurricane Disaster," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-29, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:11:y:2014:i:6:p:5684-5697:d:36520. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.