Walking in the shoes of another: assessing the boundaries of an environmental justice community and cumulative risk exposure through collaborative research

This project examines a methodology for collaboration to identify potential sources of cumulative exposures for community members during their routine weekly travels. While many sources of exposures require registration with state or federal regulatory systems, other small-scale sites may go unnoticed except by everyday occupants of the area. Residents who have few financial resources may call home those environments where exposures to multiple contaminants coexist with psychosocial stress and occur either simultaneously or sequentially to create synergistic effects on individual health. We conducted a “nested” model of community-based collaborative research with community organizations and individuals employing interviews, cognitive mapping, and geographic information systems to characterize a proposed environmental justice community in Yonkers in New York state, USA. The ability to tap into local knowledge and obtain a more comprehensive assessment of potential contaminants presents opportunities for more thorough assessment of cumulative exposures, calling for context-relevant forms of participation.