Medicine is critiqued for focusing too much on an individual’s responsibility for their ailments. Patients often are blamed for their medical conditions and are held responsible for arranging their own care. Navigating our health care system is daunting, especially in our country’s mostly privatized health care system that fosters inequities. An emerging field, Environmental health literacy (EHL), empowers people to push back against these inequities by advocating for public knowledge and a structure emphasizing community engagement.
A recent article discusses the promising developments and findings in Environmental Health Literacy (EHL). Its authors, Symma Finn and Liam O’Fallon, work for the National Institute of Health Science (NIEHS), which promotes and funds community-engagement initiatives that help people to lessen environmental exposures that lead to illness. The mission of NIEHS includes a three-step strategic plan related to promoting healthier lives among people exposed to environmental hazards. Its website presents an outstanding body of research that is accessible for all people. I recommend you take a look.
Environmental factors are contributors to disease in humans. According to the World Health Organization, environmental factors contribute to 24 percent of diseases and 23 percent of deaths. EHL emphasizes disease prevention, by providing access to information to people who lack such resources so that they can actively promote health. By spotlighting the root environmental causes of certain medical issues, EHL sets in motion behavioral changes that help people stay healthy.
Communicating environmental risks resides at the core of EHL’s mission. Yet, it wasn’t until the mid-20thcentury that the idea that environmental exposures pose risks to human health was widely recognized. Beginning in the 1960s, the fields of environmental science mitigation and remediation, health literacy, risk health communications, and environmental justice emerged.
Susceptibility to environmental risk varies greatly among communities based on socioeconomic, biological and psychological factors. Unhealthy exposures disproportionately affect low-income, minority, and indigenous peoples, so it is in these communities that EHL devotes its resources. Its community-based approach focuses on disease prevention; EHL targets health information to answer specific needs, making it accessible to those who are most affected by an environmental danger.
When sick, people often turn to the internet to seek information about their symptoms, and possible diagnosis and treatment. But with so much information available, one challenge is misinformation. When people set out to learn about breast cancer, for example, researchers have observed that the language is complex and lacks cultural specificity. Multiple environmental risk factors are linked to breast cancer, including exposures to chemicals in commonly used products.It can be challenging for someone without a medical background to understand the research.Just having access to information doesn’t mean that people have the capacity to understand it or use it to improve their health. EHL prevents misinformation by turning scientific findings into words – and often images – that are accessible to the public.
EHL was successfully put to use in the Green Housing Study in the Boston area. In this initiative, scientists tested chemical exposures and allergens inside of homes and then brought their findings- in plainspoken ways- back to parents in community meetings. The community-level approach created a human connection and developed trust between the researchers and families. Together, they collectively learned what the researchers discovered and were able to ask questions about the conditions of their homes. As a result, the Green Housing Study helped parents learn about how to prevent asthma triggers in their homes to protect their children from respiratory attacks. This initiative realized positive behavioral changes as families used the instruction they’d been given.
The researchers’ conceptual framework for measuring and understanding EHL works for a variety ofhealth issues. Step one is recognizing an environmental exposure, and then applying, analyzing, and evaluating its effects- putting knowledge to work to find solutions in people’s lives. This process doesn’t always follow a linear path; with each risk factor and community, the mode of response can differ. Whether breast cancer or asthma, their EHL model recognizes that literacy levels of people who are affected vary across issues.
Moving forward, more research is needed. Such studies should focus on the relationship between EHL initiatives, health outcomes and resilience, the effectiveness of resources and frameworks for various settings, and the long-term effects of EHL on creating positive behavioral change. EHL continues to evolve as a community-based approach to environmental public health research. As it does, conceptual models will develop too. EHL fills a vital need that our conventional health care system overlooks as a way of communicating with the public to prevent illnesses.
EHL changes the ability of people to act in their own best interest instead of feeling as though “There’s nothing Ican do,” EHL gives hope that “There’s something we can do”.
Citation:
Finn S, O’Fallon L. 2017. The emergence of environmental health literacy— from its roots to its future potential. Environ Health Perspect 125:495–501; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1409337