Environmental Contamination

Results

The number of respondents answering the remaining questions on the survey dropped off to between 80 and 90. Survey respondents were asked the type of environmental contamination they were most concerned in their community. The majority indicated that bacterial contamination was the greatest concern. However, numerous communities cited a range of toxic forms of contamination. Figure 5 shows the distribution of responses.
2002 Needs Assessment - Contaminant Concerns

We next wanted to ascertain how much community members understood about potential exposure routes, and how water-based contamination may be causing human health problems. Somewhat more than half of the respondents were able to cite specific exposure pathways in their communities. Respondents identified a range of potential exposure pathways, as depicted in Figure 6.
2002 Needs Assessment - Exposure Pathways

Discussion

The drop off in the number of respondents who were able to answer these questions begins to reflect a lack of acknowledge that exists amongst community members with health concerns. Amongst those able to specifically identify the contaminants of concern in their communities, bacteria were the most frequently identified contaminant of concern. This is likely due to the fact that (1) bacterial contamination is more prevalent than various toxicological contamination, and (2) many of the more traditional watershed organizations surveyed, located in less industrially impacted areas, are more likely to encounter bacteria as a contaminant than they are toxics. Clearly however, a number of community respondents cited a broad range of chemical contaminants of concern, including heavy metals, PCBs, and pesticides. All of these contaminants clearly have the potential to cause many of the serious health concerns identified by the respondents. The fact that half of the respondents were able to cite specific hypothesized exposure pathways suggests that a number of the health concerns identified by communities have been thought through to some extent. The fact that almost half of the respondents could not answer this question argues for the need for communities to become better educated how to investigate and understand the ways in which water-based contamination cause human health problems. Clearly many other community members are in need of help to simply be able to identify the contaminants of concern in their communities.