University of Cincinnati-Marietta-Parkersburg Metropolitan Area Reciprocal Resear

描述(申请者提供)：Marietta-Parkersburg大都市区是阿巴拉契亚的一个乡村社区。50多年来，该地区一直是美国和加拿大唯一的锰(Mn)炼油厂的所在地。居民非常关注他们的空气质量和相关的健康影响。卡罗琳·贝德勒是一位当地居民，她为清洁空气(NCA)创建并指导了邻居。拜德勒寻求辛辛那提大学的艾琳·海恩斯博士的帮助，帮助她和她的社区了解长期接触空气中锰对健康的影响。我们携手进行了一项全港性调查，以评估市民对工业废气对区内环境空气污染的关注程度，并了解他们对空气质素的看法及其对健康的影响。还评估了他们与当地工业排放有关的信息来源、他们对这些信息来源的信任程度，以及他们如何对每个信息来源的知识水平进行评级。我们发现，社区依赖当地媒体提供空气质量信息，但这些记者没有接受过科学或环境新闻方面的培训。该社区还使用网站搜索有关工业排放和健康影响的信息；然而，可靠的网站很难找到、导航和解释。因此，贝德勒和海恩斯创建了一个“辛辛那提大学-玛丽埃塔-帕克斯堡大都市区互惠研究关系”项目。该项目的目标是建立互惠的研究伙伴关系，以确定Marietta-Parkersburg大都市区社区接触锰对健康的影响，同时让社区参与研究进程，最终为区域和国家的锰排放政策提供信息。我们的主要目标是实施和评估一个多方面的基于社区的参与性研究(CBPR)计划，以弥合受影响社区和研究科学家之间的差距。该项目的以下具体目标是：具体目标1：为Marietta-Parkersburg大都市区社区和辛辛那提大学的科学研究人员创造互惠培训和研究的机会；具体目标2：在Marietta-Parkersburg大都市区记者(电台、报纸和电视记者)、辛辛那提大学研究科学家和环境记者之间建立互惠的教育关系，以便在记者和研究科学家之间建立一个明确的网络；具体目标3：通过定性研究方法评估整个社区-研究伙伴关系的成功。鉴于社区对了解其空气质量及其对健康的影响的浓厚兴趣、加州大学与Marietta-Parkersburg大都市区之间不断发展的伙伴关系，以及社区参与创新研究的机会，我们预计这项建议的结果将为国家和国际社区参与性研究提供一个具有可重复交付成果的社区研究伙伴关系范本。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Marietta-Parkersburg Metropolitan Area is a rural Appalachian community. The area has been home to the only manganese (Mn) refinery in the US and Canada for over 50 years. The residents are very concerned about the quality of their air and related health effects. Caroline Beidler, a local resident, has created and directs, Neighbors for Clean Air (NCA). Beidler has sought the assistance of Dr. Erin Haynes at the University of Cincinnati to help her and her community understand the health effects of chronic exposure to air Mn. Together we have conducted a community-wide survey to evaluate the community's level of concern about environmental air pollution in their region caused by industrial emissions and to learn about their perceptions of air quality and its impact on their health. Their sources of information related to local industrial emissions, their level of trust for these information sources, and how they rate the level of knowledge from each information source was also evaluated. We found that the community relies upon local media for air quality information, yet these reporters are not trained in science or environmental journalism. The community also uses websites to search for information on industrial emissions and health effects; however, reliable sites are difficult to find, navigate, and interpret. Thus, Beidler and Haynes have created a "University of Cincinnati-Marietta- Parkersburg Metropolitan Area Reciprocal Research Relationship" Project. The goal of this project is to create reciprocal research partnerships to determine the health effects associated with the Marietta-Parkersburg Metropolitan Area community's exposure to Mn while engaging the community in the research process to ultimately inform regional and national policy for Mn emissions. Our main objective is to implement and evaluate a multifaceted Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) program that bridges the gap between an affected community and the research scientists. The following specific aims for the project are: Specific Aim 1: Create reciprocal training and research opportunities for the Marietta-Parkersburg Metropolitan Area community and University of Cincinnati scientific researchers; Specific Aim 2: Create a reciprocal educational relationship among Marietta-Parkersburg Metropolitan Area journalists (radio, newspaper and TV reporters), University of Cincinnati research scientists and environmental journalists to establish a well-defined network between journalists and research scientists; and Specific Aim 3: Evaluate the success of the overall community-research partnership through qualitative research methods. Given the community's intense interest in understanding their air quality and resulting health effects, the developing partnership between UC and the Marietta-Parkersburg Metropolitan area, and the opportunity for community involvement in innovative research studies, we anticipate that the results of this proposal will provide a model community-research partnership with reproducible deliverables for national and international community-based participatory research studies.