| Social Responsibility and Research Ethics in Community-Driven Studies of Industrialized Hog Production Steve Wing Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA Abstract
Environmental health research can document exposures and health effects that result from inequitable relationships between communities of low income or people of color and the institutions that derive benefits (profits, federal and state funding or services, avoidance of wastes) from activities and policies that burden these communities. Researchers, most of whom work in relatively privileged institutions, are placed in situations of conflicting loyalties if they conduct research in collaboration with, or on behalf of, communities burdened by environmental injustices. These conflicts can threaten the self-interest of researchers and may raise social and ethical issues that do not typically arise in research projects that respond to the agendas of institutions. This article describes how we addressed issues of research ethics and social responsibility in environmental health research on industrialized hog production in North Carolina. Researchers and institutional review boards are not well prepared to address ethical issues when interests of entire communities, as well as individual research participants, are involved. Community-driven research partnerships can help address problems in research ethics and can enhance the social responsibility of researchers and their institutions. Key words: African Americans, agriculture, confidentiality, environmental justice, livestock, swine, water pollution. Environ Health Perspect 110:437-444 (2002) . [Online 22 March 2002] http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2002/110p437-444wing/ abstract.html Address correspondence to S. Wing, Department of Epidemiology, 2101F McGavran-Greenberg Hall, School of Public Health, CB#7435, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7435 USA. Telephone: (919) 966-7416. Fax: (919) 966-2089. E-mail: steve_wing@unc.edu This research was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Grant Program on Research Ethics 1T15 AA149650 and by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grant R25-ES08206-04 under the Environmental Justice: Partnerships for Communication program. Received 24 October 2001 ; accepted 25 January 2002.
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