Impacts on Community Residents Downwind of a Major Pollution Source

Michael R. Edelstein (Ramapo College of New Jersey)

In this presentation, the results of a rapid assessment of Psycho-Social Impact is made for a community in Central Asia suffering from long term air pollution. The source of the air pollution is a factory across an international border, so that no regulatory authority exists to curtail the hazard. And, in the realm of geopolitics, the problem is not recognized at all by the hostnation from which the problem originates. The paper will use the author’s well tested framework for examining contamination events to dissect the ways that community members are affected. An overview of the community’s effort to mobilize on its own behalf is also offered. The result is to raise a series of important questions for the Environmental Design field which will be discussed in the presentation and with the audience. These include the following: Does a designer have the responsibility to protect future inhabitants of the building/neighborhood/community from known or likely ambient hazards? Does environmental injustice rather than environmental justice serve as the basis for government or industry decision making in the real world? And what is the responsibility of the researcher to respond to change this? And finally, how can research be used as a tool to expose impacts that deserve to be addressed if people are not to be victimized? As we endeavor to shift to a sustainable world, such questions must be addressed if legacy issues as well as ongoing instances of environmental contamination are to be addressed.