Climate change, Hazardous Waste and Environmental Justice in Brunswick, GA

PI: Noah Scovronick, School of Public Health, Environmental Health

The city of Brunswick, a majority African American and low-income city in southeast Georgia, is located on the coast and faces climate-related risks including severe storms, rising sea levels and flooding.  Brunswick also has many hazardous waste sites and ongoing industrial activities that produce air and water pollution. Residents of Brunswick have concerns about these compounding risks and have expressed the need for more information on what is in their environment and who is being affected. In this project, we will first meet with community representatives to identify a research question of high priority to the community. Based on the research question, we will then collect the necessary environmental samples and analyze them in Emory’s laboratory. Finally, we will make the results available to the community through a series of outreach activities.

How this study advances exposome science:  This research focuses on the interaction between three compounding and integrated health issues: climate change, hazardous waste, and environmental justice. This project will partner with community members to collect and identify information about their environmental exposure concerns, providing an initial step towards increasing this community’s climate resilience.