Module 3: Data for Health Justice
Daniel Akinola-Odusola
Centric Lab
Featuring:
In this lesson, Daniel from the Centric lab team will discuss how air pollution and health are separate yet interacting phenomena and what that means for data used to frame the health of communities who are being polluted.
Key Learnings: Definitions
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A principle that supports pushing a body (human, plant, water, etc) to “safe” levels. This usually does not take consent into account or true concern for the body.
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Systematic, unfair, and avoidable stress-related biological differences which increase risk of disease, observed between social groups of a population.
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When institutions discredit a phenomena or desire to address injustice surfaced by those facing it due to ignorance and a reliance on data and tactics that might cause the community to question the severity or cause of the experience.
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A mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets, some naturally occurring and some caused by pollution and human activity, found in the air. Some particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter (PM10) can get deep into your lungs and some may even get into your bloodstream. Of these, particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (fine particles or PM2.5) pose the greatest risk to health by their ease of entering the bloodstream.
Key Learnings: Our Thoughts
Particulate matter is used to identify air quality and the condition of the environment but does not directly identify health as it does not account for the variance in susceptibility.
Air quality metrics, by being quantified, give polluters limited accountability on the nuanced health outcomes of the communities that they impact as lived experience is usually also qualitative.
By focusing on environmental factors as a representation of community health, there’s a risk of maintaining an assimilative capacity approach to health and planning where authorities feel they can pollute if their emissions hit certain metrics.
Justice starts with making community health knowledge and advocacy determine goals based on direct health metrics then the environmental proxies that affect health.
What in this lesson stood out for you?
Debate Questions
These questions are framed to help you apply your own experience and perspectives to points raised in this lesson.
How has air quality data been presented to you in the discussion of health?
What do you consider to be useful metrics of community health?
Do you feel comfortable challenging the use of air quality data to discuss health?
How To…
Reframe air quality data to health goals
Think of ways you can draw on lived experience and health concerns to ensure air quality is framed in the context of health wit these suggestions:
Determine what are community priorities in health and environment. These could be directly related to community/demographic health, local activities, access to spaces, etc.
Create space for the air quality data to be received and discussed amongst those being impacted with health and environmental priorities in mind.
If it makes sense to, you can still build on the use and campaigning of air quality data to support a healthier environment while intentionally not making it a health metric.
Highlight the specific scope and limitations of the air quality data in addressing your community health and environmental concerns.
Next Lesson:
Module 3 Lesson 3