Residents' experiences during a hydrogen sulfide crisis in Carson, California.

IF 5.3 2区 环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Arbor J L Quist, April Hovav, Alexander D Silverman, Bhavna Shamasunder, Jill E Johnston
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: In early October 2021, thousands of residents in Carson, California began complaining of malodors and headaches. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a noxious odorous gas, was measured at concentrations up to 7000 parts per billion (ppb) and remained above California's acute air quality standard of 30 ppb for a month. Intermittent elevations of H2S continued for 3 months. After 2 months of malodor in this environmental justice community, a government agency attributed the H2S to environmental pollution from a warehouse fire. Research has yielded conflicting results on the health effects of H2S exposure at levels that were experienced during this event. This research fills a critical need for understanding how people perceive and experience emergent environmental health events and will help shape future responses.

Methods: Through a community-academic partnership, we conducted 6 focus groups with 33 participants who resided in the Carson area during the crisis. We sought to understand how this incident affected residents through facilitated discussion on topics including information acquisition, impressions of the emergency response, health symptoms, and ongoing impacts.

Results: The majority of participants were women (n = 25), identified as Latina/o (n = 19), and rent their homes (n = 21). Participants described difficulty obtaining coherent information about the emergency, which resulted in feelings of abandonment. Most participants felt that local government and healthcare providers downplayed and/or disregarded their concerns despite ongoing odors and health symptoms. Participants described experiencing stress from the odors' unknown health effects and continued fear of future odor incidents. Residents sought to take control of the crisis through information sharing, community networking, and activism. Participants experienced longer term effects from this event, including increased awareness of pollution and reduced trust in local agencies.

Discussion: This study demonstrates the necessity of clear, comprehensive, and prompt responses by relevant decisionmakers to chemical emergencies to appropriately address residents' fears, curb the spread of misinformation, and minimize adverse health effects. Participant responses also point to the benefit of supporting horizontal community networks for improved information sharing. By engaging directly with community members, researchers and disaster responders can better understand the various and complex impacts of chemical disasters and can improve response.

加利福尼亚州卡森市居民在硫化氢危机中的经历。
背景:2021 年 10 月初,加利福尼亚州卡森市的数千名居民开始抱怨恶臭和头痛。硫化氢 (H2S) 是一种有毒的恶臭气体,测量到的浓度高达 7000 ppb,并且在一个月内一直高于加利福尼亚州急性空气质量标准 30 ppb。H2S 的间歇性升高持续了 3 个月。在这个环境正义社区出现恶臭 2 个月后,一家政府机构将 H2S 归因于仓库火灾造成的环境污染。在这次事件中,关于暴露于 H2S 水平对健康的影响的研究结果相互矛盾。这项研究满足了了解人们如何感知和体验突发环境健康事件的关键需求,并将有助于制定未来的应对措施:通过社区与学术界的合作,我们与危机期间居住在卡森地区的 33 名参与者进行了 6 次焦点小组讨论。我们试图通过对信息获取、应急响应印象、健康症状和持续影响等主题的讨论,了解此次事件对居民的影响:大多数参与者为女性(25 人),拉美裔(19 人),租房居住(21 人)。据参与者描述,她们很难获得有关紧急情况的连贯信息,因此产生了被遗弃的感觉。大多数参与者认为,尽管异味和健康症状持续存在,但当地政府和医疗服务提供者轻视和/或无视他们的担忧。参与者描述了臭味对健康的未知影响和对未来臭味事件的持续恐惧所带来的压力。居民们试图通过信息共享、社区网络和行动主义来控制危机。这次事件对参与者产生了长期影响,包括污染意识的增强和对当地机构信任度的降低:本研究表明,相关决策者有必要对化学品突发事件做出清晰、全面和迅速的反应,以适当消除居民的恐惧,遏制错误信息的传播,并最大限度地减少对健康的不利影响。参与者的回答还表明了支持横向社区网络以改善信息共享的益处。通过与社区成员直接接触,研究人员和救灾人员可以更好地了解化学灾害的各种复杂影响,并改进应对措施。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Environmental Health
Environmental Health 环境科学-公共卫生、环境卫生与职业卫生
CiteScore
10.10
自引率
1.70%
发文量
115
审稿时长
3.0 months
期刊介绍: Environmental Health publishes manuscripts on all aspects of environmental and occupational medicine and related studies in toxicology and epidemiology. Environmental Health is aimed at scientists and practitioners in all areas of environmental science where human health and well-being are involved, either directly or indirectly. Environmental Health is a public health journal serving the public health community and scientists working on matters of public health interest and importance pertaining to the environment.
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