The Flint Water Crisis: Overturning the Research Paradigm to Advance Science and Defend Public Welfare

Introduction to Public Health for Environmental Engineers: Results from a Three-year Pilot

“…The education of future environmental engineers is in the middle of a "tug of war" -being pulled at one end by the research agenda and being pulled at the other end by the necessities of practice. In the wake of the discovery of preventable public health threats in essential infrastructure systems -such as lead contamination in the drinking water of Flint, Michigan -Edwards and Pruden argued for, "overturning the research paradigm to … defend public welfare," [31]. Whether working globally to promote access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) among peoples of developing countries or working locally to manage the risks associated with environmental determinants of health, there is clear value in teaching environmental engineers the fundamentals and practice of public health as part of interprofessional education (IPE) in environmental health practice [24].…”

Analysis of blood lead levels of young children in Flint, Michigan before and during the 18-month switch to Flint River water

“…This has been true for decades prior to the drinking water switch from the Detroit Water Authority (DWA) to FRW that occurred from 25 April 2014 to 15 October 2015. The water source switch resulted in a higher percentage of households having tap water that exceeded allowable water lead concentration of 15 parts per billion, as outlined by the Lead and Copper rule of the Environmental Protection Agency [6][7][8]. Previous reports showed transient increases in the frequency percentage of BLLs of young children with BLLs above the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reference value of 5.0 lg/dL [9][10][11].…”

“Racing the Sun”: A Narrative Analysis of Engineering Graduate Students’ Journeys Navigating Public-Inspired Science Work

“…Examples of community engagement include philanthropic giving, volunteering, public artistic expression, or working collaboratively to solve a community problem" (Morgan, Davis & López, 2017, p. 109). In engineering education, examples of community engagement include the rebuilding of decaying urban infrastructure, improving K-12 STEM education, incorporating Indigenous perspectives for land management, and fighting environmental injustices that impact low-socioeconomic communities (Tsang, 2000;Goldfinch and Kennedy, 2013;Gilbert et al, 2015;Edwards andPruden, 2016a and2016b;Harsh et al, 2017).…”

“…Allowing engineers to pursue public-inspired work can potentially be an opportunity for engineering to remain socially relevant. Public-inspired science has a premise that scientists and engineers can enter into a range of collaborations with communities that link data collection to evaluation of health risks and problem solving (Edwards & Pruden, 2016a). This public-inspired science/engineering model has the potential to make engineering a more desirable career because students can more apply engineering principles through working on real-world problems that can only be solved in collaboration with the public.…”

“…In the aftermath of the Flint Water Crisis, engineers that practice public-inspired science have been centered in these conversations (Akay, 2003;Ravesteijn et al, 2006;Cruickshank and Fenner, 2007;Edwards, 2016;Edwards and Pruden, 2016;Sedlak, 2016;Oransky and Marcus, 2017). At one level, Flint was an example of a community engagement by engineers that helped expose environmental crimes and injustice (Edwards, 2016;Edwards and Pruden, 2016a;Oransky and Marcus, 2017), allowing engineering trainees and opportunity to navigate complex terrain and consider their motivation for engineering careers (Bates, 2016;Kolowich, 2016), and at another level concerns have been expressed about jeopardizing precious funding and the social engineering contract, exacerbating power imbalances, and who is credited for success (Lambrinidou, 2016;2016b;Sedlak, 2016;Roldan-Hernandez et al, 2020;Carrera and Key, 2021;). These diverse viewpoints indicate that the perils and promise of such work will continue to be debated.…”