Community-academic collaboration to reduce the health impacts of international trade

Scientific research is critical to understanding the burden of disease from international trade and its impacts on public health. Scientists at the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center, an NIEHS Center based at USC, have published research findings about air pollution measurements in close proximity to freeway traffic, and the health impacts of living near a busy road or freeway. The Center's outreach program translates these research findings in ways that community-based organizations can use them to improve public health. It also gathers local knowledge from residents and uses the information in developing the Center's scientific research agenda. Center scientists are now studying rail yard emissions, an effort generated by community concerns. The Center's outreach program uses research findings on air pollution's health effects to educate the public and inform public policy. This presentation will describe a community-academic collaborative we have formed focused on using science and community action to reduce public health impacts of international trade, with two universities and four community-based/EJ groups, called the Trade Health and Environment Impact Project. We will describe THE Impact Project's community mapping website with information on ports and rail facilities in the U.S. and a national conference on ports and goods movement that the USC Center and THE Impact Project sponsored in Fall 2010. In addition, the author participated in developing the first U.S. EPA report on goods movement for the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, and both public health and policy recommendations from that report will be discussed.