From the Ground Up: Community-Based Participatory Research Reclaiming the Science of Lead

Abstract

For decades, the dominant approach to lead poisoning has been to focus on homes affected by lead paint and to treat children who are already suffering from lead poisoning. This individualizing approach developed in the context of the defunding and deregulation of government agencies in the 1980s. In recent years, however, community–academic partnerships have reframed lead as an environmental issue produced by the development of the lead industry in the twentieth century and connected to overlapping histories of exploitation, discrimination, and inaction. These community-based projects have contributed to shifting research agendas (by emphasizing historical analysis and the study of the soil and dust), achieved policy changes (with a focus on community-level solutions), and built networks and solidarity with groups advocating for climate justice, tenant organizing, and food security.