Environmental public health communication to engage stakeholders and foster social capacity in poorly involved communities living in industrial contaminated sites

The case study of Porto Torres (Italy)

Dados Bibliográficos

ID22093137
AutoresDaniela Marsili (0000-0001-7233-4331, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, autor correspondente), Roberto Pasetto (0000-0001-9155-3812, Istituto Superiore di Sanità), Ivano Iavarone (0000-0001-5856-9484, Istituto Superiore di Sanità)
Ano2023
Volume8
Data de publicação2023-12-15
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoFrontiers in Communication (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2297-900X • E-ISSN: 2297-900X
EditoraFrontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/fcomm.2023.1217427
OpenAlexW4389786102
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas37

This work aims to discuss the implementation of a communication plan as a key element of the epidemiological study to foster social capacity in the scarcely involved community of the industrial contaminated site of Porto Torres (Sardinia region, Italy). We established an inter-institutional working group committed to developing communication activities and materials ensuring multidisciplinary skills from social and communication sciences to collaborate with the environmental and health experts involved in the epidemiological study. The adopted methodological approach and communication strategy resulted in effective and successful engagement of local institutional and social actors in the design and implementation of targeted communication activities. Designing and implementing environmental public health communication processes with poorly involved communities residing close to industrially contaminated sites is critically important. In these areas, environmental noxious exposures associated with high health risks are frequently combined with low socioeconomic conditions. This calls upon mechanisms of environmental injustice, distributive and procedural, and emphasizes the need to prioritize interventions based on integrative strategies securing local communities' engagement through informed participation. Based on the lessons learned in this community-focused experience in Italy, we have identified key actions for suitable environmental public health communication to foster social capacity and promote procedural environmental justice in communities living in other industrial contaminated sites

Capacity building · Community engagement · Environmental communication · Environmental health · Environmental justice · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geography · Multidisciplinary approach · Political science · Psychological intervention · Public health · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Environmental and Social Impact Assessments · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities · Medicine · Nursing · Risk Perception and Management