Attaching Pollution to Health Harms to Responsibilities using Environmental Data
The Pollution Reporter App is an ongoing project to provide information that connects polluters with their chemical pollution and then connects chemicals to their known health harms. The app is in its beta version and focuses on the Imperial Oil Refinery of Sarnia, which his on the traditional territory of Aamjiwnang First Nation.
The app also facilitates community members in sending reports of pollution events to the Ontario Ministry of Environment through their email.
The app is primarily intended for the use of the community who lives near this refinery. The app translates government, industry-reported, and peer reviewed sources of data into accessible information about the known health effects of pollutants. The App visually and informationally offers accessible ways of attaching responsibility for health harms to chemicals and the corporations that make them, as well as implicate the government in allowing corporations to pollute. For example, the app visualizes the cumulative rates of pollution for each chemical. In providing this information in an interactive and accessible way, the app hopes to increase communities’ abilities to link health harms to companies and spills without having to have communities be subject to more research. The app will also provide visual and informational testimony of the permission-to-pollute system of Canada, which is designed to let environmental harms occur. It will also allow people to share the app’s research information between community members and in spill reporting.
About the Data
Pollution Reporter uses government-collected chemical emissions data from the National Pollution Release Inventory, in which companies admit to polluting from a list of 300 chemicals. The app connects that data to peer-reviewed research about the health injuries associated with each chemical pollutant. To connect facility chemical emissions data to their health effects, we consulted peer reviewed studies, occupational health and safety literature, government environmental and human health datasets, as well as a set of publicly available toxicological databases from Canada, the United States, and the World Health Organization.
Limits and Uses of the Data
This app uses inadequate data about pollution emissions and connects it to health harms information using more accessible language.
These connections show a polluter's responsibilities for putting health harms into the world.
Health Harm Research
Some chemicals have decades of health research, other chemicals very little.
- We identify health harms as “strong” if there are multiple studies (either human or animal-based) with strong evidence.
- We identify health harms as “suggestive” if there is some evidence of harm but it is not yet conclusive, or there are only few studies available.
Government data about pollution does not connect polluters to chemicals and their health harms.
Government data about pollution is:
- Created by Industry. Most emissions data are self-reported by the industries that are doing the polluting.
- Disconnected. Information on pollution and information on health harms exist in separate databases and require extensive research to put together.
- Hard to Get. Most information is not accessible to the public. It is expressed in technical language and held in private, paid, or subscription-based sources.
- Inaccurate. Governments and industry tend to underreport harms, especially on hormone disruption and the health harms of low-level exposures.
- Out of Date. Government reviews of health harms can be decades out of date.
One at a Time. Information about pollutants and health harms are usually organized one chemical at a time. We live in places with many chemical exposures happening at the same time, and adding up over time.
Our Research
This app draws on a variety of information sources, as well as consults current peer-reviewed health research.
We translate this research into accessible language.
Sources on Pollution:
National Pollution Release Inventory (NPRI)
Industries self-report their pollution to the Canadian government annually. The NPRI is useful because specific facilities and companies admit to their pollution.
But the NPRI is flawed:
The amounts reported are usually only estimates, which means the actual emissions are not measured.
Chemicals are listed one-by-one.
The accumulation of pollution to air, land, and water over time is ignored.
PubChem
This source provides technical information about chemicals, primarily directed at engineers, scientists, and industrial users.
Sources on Health Harms
The app uses and evaluates peer reviewed medical research. The provided on the app are about known health harms that a chemical can cause or is correlated with. They are not medical diagnoses.
TOXNET
TOXNET is a US government website that compiles peer-reviewed health information on chemicals. Government datasets like TOXNET often do not include the latest research on health harms related to low-level effects, hormonal disruption, intergenerational effects, persistence in land or bodies, as well as other felt ways that chemicals can affect daily life that are not a disease, like a headache (which are called subclinical effects).
TedX
TEDX is a science-based, nonprofit research institute that provides information about the production and use of chemicals that interfere with healthy hormone function. TEDX uses systematic review methods developed by the US National Toxicology Program to identify hormone disrupting chemicals.
IARC
The International Agency for Research on Cancer is the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization. It uses systematic review methods to identify cancer-causing chemicals.
Proposition 65 Cancer List
California’s Proposition 65 is a law that requires the publication of a list of chemicals that may cause cancer or reproductive harm. This list is updated yearly.
App Prototype
The Pollution Reporter App is being made by the Environmental Data Justice Lab at the Technoscience Research Unit, University of Toronto. This is an Indigenous-led lab composed of university and community researchers, in collaboration with the City as Platform Lab and Reflekor developers. The App team is composed of Michelle Murphy, Reena Shadaan, Kristen Bos, Ladan Said, Vanessa Gray, and Beth Coleman. The making of this app has been funded by a Connaught Global Challenge Award and a SSHRC Insight Grant. The app is being developed in consultation and with guidance from the Aamjiwnaang Environmental Community and a community review process. The app is currently in its user testing beta phase. Questions or concerns about the app should be directed to technoscienceresearchunit@gmail.com.
Privacy Policy
The Technoscience Research Unit built the Pollution Reporter app as an Open Source app. This SERVICE is provided by Technoscience Research Unit at no cost and is intended for use as is.
This page is used to inform visitors regarding our policies with the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information if anyone decided to use our Service.
If you choose to use our Service, then you agree to the use of information in relation to this policy. This app does not collect personal information and no logon is necessary. Users who send pollution incident reports using the app form will be sending the report through their own email. Users may choose to send a copy of their email to the Technoscience Research Unit. This information will only be used to improve the App service, and data collected from such reports will be made anonymous, stored securely, and the statistics from cumulative reports will be shared back to the Aamjiwnaang Environmental Committee and community. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy.
The terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions, which is accessible at Pollution Reporter unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy.
Information Collection and Use
This app collects no user information. You may send the Technoscience Research Unit comments by email. The information you send by email will be retained by us and used as described in this privacy policy.
Log Data
We want to inform you that whenever you use our Service, in a case of an error in the app we collect data and information (through third party products) on your phone called Log Data. This Log Data may include information such as your device Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, device name, operating system version, the configuration of the app when utilizing our Service, the time and date of your use of the Service, and other statistics.
Links to Other Sites
This Service may contain links to other sites. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that site. Note that these external sites are not operated by us. Therefore, we strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of these websites. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
Children’s Privacy
These Services do not address anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. In the case we discover that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we immediately delete this from our servers. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so that we will be able to do necessary actions.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. Thus, you are advised to review this page periodically for any changes. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. These changes are effective immediately after they are posted on this page.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or suggestions about our Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us at technoscienceresearchunit@gmail.com.ragraph