According to the Environmental Protection Agency, an unknown amount of a dangerous chemical linked to birth defects and cancer may have washed downstream from the San Jacinto River Waste Pits site in Channelview, Texas during flooding from Hurricane Harvey. (AP Photo/John L. Mone)
Documenting contamination is only the first step. Residents, the media and public officials can easily misinterpret lab results and risk predictions, which are based on complex modeling.
To help people understand what these exposures could mean to their short-term and long-term health, we are working with established teams of toxicologists, environmental health specialists, civil engineers, chemists, risk communication specialists and graphic designers as part of Texas A&M’s Institute for Sustainable Communities. We are also exploring ways to use social media to communicate with residents at risk as part of the university’s new Superfund Research Program.
During and after Harvey, some Houston residents were exposed to complex mixtures of contaminants from chemical plants and toxic waste sites. We need better, more accessible materials and communication tools to help people understand what kinds of health risks they may face if they have come in contact with industrial chemicals or hazardous waste.
New data sources
After major disasters, epidemiologists need ways to determine quickly where the greatest needs lie. Student volunteers from my EpiAssist program have helped conduct surveys to rapidly estimate remaining unmet needs and assess how prepared residents were when the storm hit.
We also can measure people’s needs by looking at how they use telecommunications. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, researchers at Texas A&M’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning
analyzed use of 2-1-1, a telephone number that Texas used to help Katrina evacuees in Texas to search for services across the state. By studying 2-1-1 data, they were able to identify unmet needs in real time.
Now people are using social media networks and apps during disasters. After Harvey, many desperate flooding victims turned to Facebook and Twitter to appeal for help or find supplies. With colleagues from Texas A&M’s Computer Science and Engineering and Health Promotion and Community Health Sciences departments, I am analyzing tweets sent during Harvey to see how volunteer responders provided lifesaving assistance, and to understand risks and exposures that many volunteers may have experienced.
Long-term questions
More information about Harvey’s impacts will become available over time and can tell us a lot. I will be requesting and analyzing data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to design studies to assess the quality and pace of recovery.
One key priority should be to enroll a large number of Houstonians in a cohort study that can follow them over time to see how strongly certain risk factors – such as exposures to contaminated flood waters, chemical spills or leaking Superfund sites – are associated with future illness. Researchers track cohort members’ health by surveying them periodically, collecting biological samples from them and reviewing their medical records.
Studies like this after past disasters have produced important findings. Researchers used a registry of firefighters and emergency responders who were involved in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to identify cancers from exposure to ignited chemicals and materials. The National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences created a similar registry after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill to assess health outcomes of people who were involved in cleanup and remediation activities.
An emerging field
Epidemiology is more than 150 years old, but applying it in disaster settings is relatively new. Using epidemiologic methods and study designs in post-disaster settings can help identify vulnerable populations, quantify deaths and injuries and determine how disasters have affected public health. It also can lead to better decision-making and use of resources.
Wide-scale disasters can create conditions that foster serious health threats afterward. For example, in Texas and Florida communities that experienced hurricane flooding and where Zika virus is endemic, health officials may need to pay closer attention to people of childbearing age in shelters and put more resources into mosquito control and personal protective measures. Officials in Puerto Rico have reported two confirmed and 10 suspected cases of leptospirosis, a disease transmitted via contaminated water, in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Amassing more evidence about how disasters affect health will improve readiness, response, recovery and mitigation for all Americans.
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Jennifer Horney, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatictics, Texas A&M University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.