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Community Health & Harm Narratives: Exploring the Public Health Concerns of Communities along the Newtown Creek

Public health risks from environmental pollution continue to burden low-income and communities of color unfairly. Environmental injustice is of particular concern along the banks of Newtown Creek, a highly polluted body of water separating Western Queens from Brooklyn. Communities adjacent to the Newtown Creek, such as Greenpoint in Brooklyn, Sunnyside and Maspeth in Queens, are home to a disproportionate number of environmental hazards. A 30 million gallon oil spill was discovered by the United States Coast Guard in 1978 and now contaminates over 55 acres of mixed residential and commercial property in Greenpoint. In addition, these communities house the Newtown Creek sewage treatment plant (treats approximately 75% of New York City waste), Keyspan’s natural gas plant (stores liquefied and compressed natural gas), 20 waste transfer stations, and countless other "Toxic Release Inventory’ and ‘Right to Know’ facilities. Although community residents continue to express concern regarding the public health risks of living amongst such a high concentration of environmental hazards, very little has been done to remedy their situation.

The purpose of this study, "Community Health & Harm Narratives: Exploring the Public Health Concerns of Communities along the Newtown Creek," is to document the public health concerns of individuals residing in communities along the Newtown Creek in New York City. Participant narratives hope to capture residents’ experience with illness and pollution in their neighborhood. This study will use a community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework, which engages communities in setting research agendas and allows individuals to express their own felt health and environmental concerns. The contextual or experiential knowledge of community members is an oft-overlooked asset in traditional epidemiological research. In addition, this project seeks to engage community members, build individual and community capacity, and increase self-efficacy through skill-building and empowerment.

The one-year project integrates CBPR principles and community organizing strategies into each phase of the study:

Community members who are interested in participating in the collection of the narratives will form a core of research assistants. Their role in the project will be to identify (through flyers, advertisements, and in-person recruitment) other community members who are interested in accounting their narrative for the project. In addition, these community research assistants will serve as peer-interviewers and receive training on how to use the interview protocol.