| Reporting Pesticide Assessment Results to Farmworker Families: Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Risk Communication Strategy Sara A. Quandt,1 Alicia M. Doran,2 Pamela Rao,2 Jane A. Hoppin,3 Beverly M. Snively,1 and Thomas A. Arcury2 1Department of Public Health Sciences and 2Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA; 3National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA Abstract
The collection of environmental samples presents a responsibility to return information to the affected participants. Explaining complex and often ambiguous scientific information to a lay audience is a challenge. As shown by environmental justice research, this audience frequently has limited formal education, increasing the challenge for researchers to explain the data collected, the risk indicated by the findings, and action the affected community should take. In this study we describe the development and implementation of a risk communication strategy for environmental pesticide samples collected in the homes of Latino/a migrant and seasonal farmworkers in a community-based participatory research project. The communication strategy was developed with community input and was based on face-to-face meetings with members of participating households. Using visual displays of data effectively conveyed information about individual household contamination and placed it in the context of community findings. The lack of national reference data and definitive standards for action necessitated a simplified risk message. We review the strengths and weaknesses of such an approach and suggest areas for future research in risk communication to communities affected by environmental health risks. Key words: agriculture, children, community, environmental justice, exposure, health communication, house dust, Latino/a. Environ Health Perspect 112:636-642 (2004) . doi:10.1289/ehp.6754 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 6 January 2004]
Address correspondence to S.A. Quandt, Department of Public Health Sciences, Piedmont Plaza II, Suite 512, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1063 USA. Telephone: (336) 716-6015. Fax: (336) 713-4157. E-mail: squandt@wfubmc.edu This work was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health (R01 ES08739) . Earlier versions of this article were presented at a meeting of the International Society of Exposure Analysis and International Society for Environmental Epidemiology in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 15 August 2002, and East Coast Migrant Stream Forum, Savannah, GA, USA, 26 October 2002. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 22 September 2003 ; accepted 6 January 2004.
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