Abstract/Details

“Get the Lead out!” Urban Lead Exposure Through Community Science: Lessons From the Newark Water Coalition

Kalyan, Bavisha.   University of California, Berkeley ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2024. 31490195.

Abstract (summary)

This dissertation explores environmental lead exposure, focusing on the city of Newark, New Jersey. It follows a community-academic partnership formed with the Newark Water Coalition. Together, we formed a Mobile Lead Testing Unit to respond to the question “What are the current lead exposure sources in Newark”?. In Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, I outline the history of the project and contextualize it with the regulatory history of lead. In doing so, I highlight how community-based participatory work should be at the forefront of how we tackle lead exposure. Chapter 3 covers all of field measurements taken during the Mobile Lead Testing Unit campaign and explores intervariable relationships. The results provide a nuanced understanding of household lead exposure risks and reveal high lead levels in soil and dust. In Chapter 4, I use interviews and site observations to understand contemporary Newark stakeholder perspectives of lead exposure interventions and challenges. I also compare how community-based participatory research overlaps with achieving environmental justice principles. This dissertation highlights the significance of adopting a community-centered approach to understand exposure risks in vulnerable populations. It demonstrates how we can, and what we have left to do to, empower community and community-based organizations in developing and owning their own environmental inventories.

Indexing (details)


Subject
Environmental health;
Environmental engineering;
Public health;
Environmental justice;
Urban planning
Classification
0470: Environmental Health
0775: Environmental engineering
0573: Public health
0999: Urban planning
0619: Environmental Justice
Identifier / keyword
Community science; Community-based participatory research; Lead exposure; Lead poisoning prevention; Newark New Jersey
Title
“Get the Lead out!” Urban Lead Exposure Through Community Science: Lessons From the Newark Water Coalition
Author
Kalyan, Bavisha
Number of pages
173
Publication year
2024
Degree date
2024
School code
0028
Source
DAI-A 86/3(E), Dissertation Abstracts International
ISBN
9798384455172
Advisor
Carrasquillo, Maya
Committee member
Morello-Frosh, Rachel; Gonzalez, Marta
University/institution
University of California, Berkeley
Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
University location
United States -- California
Degree
Ph.D.
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language
English
Document type
Dissertation/Thesis
Dissertation/thesis number
31490195
ProQuest document ID
3111073826
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/docview/3111073826