Community outreach and engagement are key components of translating research into action. One academic-community partnership that was created to address the health effects of traffic-related air pollution has had significant impacts on community development projects since its initiation in 2008. It has improved indoor air filtration in building design and supported development of policies to lessen resident exposure to traffic-related air pollution.

The partnership, the Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health Study (CAFEH), initially funded by a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grant, studied air pollutants and cardiovascular disease risk among residents in Boston’s Chinatown and neighboring Somerville, two environmental justice communities with high levels of traffic-related air pollution. CAFEH now serves as an umbrella for multiple community-based participatory and community engaged research studies focused on air pollution and provides policy advice to various stakeholders. Three recent papers describe how the partnership provides a promising strategy to translate research into practice, the strategies used to engage community stakeholders, and how negative health effects of traffic-related air pollution were mitigated.

“This research started with a request from the community to assess the risk of air pollution from the highway,” said Doug Brugge, Ph.D., a researcher at the University of Connecticut, chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences, and principal investigator on the NIEHS grants that supported this work. “Having a participatory community partnership helped lead us from studying the problem to investigating ways to reduce exposure and the associated health risks. Consequently, much of our work today is on indoor air filtration, noise barriers, and urban planning and building design.”

Effective Community Engagement Gets Research Translated Into Action

Since CAFEH research findings have had a positive impact on a variety of community projects, Brugge and collaborators at multiple universities, community partners, and agencies were interested in determining which specific components led to the successful translation of research into action. To learn about community-level factors, the team conducted interviews, observations, and document review from 2017 to 2018.

“No surprise, we have learned that working with community partners is the key to research translation. Our partners have a nuanced understanding of the local landscape, including political dynamics, resident priorities, and developer concerns. Working together we have been able to get the research findings to the right people in a meaningful way,” noted Linda Sprague Martinez, Ph.D., a researcher from Boston University School of Social Work.

One of CAFEH’s partners, the Somerville Transportation Equity Partnerships, is an organization of community advocates for transportation improvements in Somerville. They have worked with local and state elected officials and city staff to develop solutions to their concerns.

Ellin Reisner, Ph.D., president of the Somerville Transportation Equity Partnerships, explained, “We use a number of approaches to reduce exposure to traffic related air pollution, from testifying at local Planning Board meetings on new housing projects, to working with local and regional environmental justice groups to increase public awareness of the health impacts of traffic related air pollution. Our work also focuses on improving indoor air quality standards. This involves holding community meetings on our research findings to inform residents and collaborate with them to seek solutions that reduce air pollution exposure.”

Effective community engagement has led to CAFEH’s successes in translating research findings into action in Somerville and Chinatown. The Metropolitan Area Planning Council, one of CAFEH’s partner organizations, led a health lens analysis. Health lens analysis is an iterative, data driven process that facilitates collaboration between community members and government stakeholders and focuses on generating health-based recommendations.

Sharon Ron, of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council said, “The ultimate goal of this work is to see that the ideas and recommendations generated by these reports informs city or state action. We continue to work with stakeholders around the region to raise awareness of this issue and promote evidence-based solutions.”

In Somerville, residents identified air quality and noise pollution as top concerns. Through participatory design sessions, a hallmark of health lens analysis, residents worked with multi-disciplinary stakeholders such as environmental engineers and city planners to develop designs for noise barriers to mitigate both noise and air pollution exposure. CAFEH determined that current Department of Transportation guidelines did not prioritize noise barriers in Somerville, so community action focused on advocating for policy change to prioritize noise barrier construction.

In Chinatown, resident priorities were collected through a series of community meetings that included residents and community leaders. These data informed participatory design sessions in which community members focused on green space, improved pedestrian safety, and ways to prevent commercial and residential displacement. As a result of community involvement, air pollution mitigation efforts have been included in Chinatown’s neighborhood master plan and in its strategies for future community development.

Lydia Lowe, Executive Director of the Chinatown Community Land Trust stated, “In the beginning, the community was not that tuned into research. But over the years, CAFEH’s research findings have become popularized, and our community has used that work to envision and demand a stable and healthy Chinatown.”

The Partnership’s Impact on Community Practices

As a result of its sustained presence in the community in decision-making, CAFEH has become a trusted resource within the Somerville and Chinatown communities. It has found itself in a consultative role, which has led to the consideration of air pollution concerns in construction and city planning projects.

“I’ve been interviewing individuals involved in planning from across sectors in each of the communities, and it has been interesting to hear about the different ways in which the CAFEH research has informed local practice; from specific development projects to community sustainability planning, and people are talking about air pollution,” said Sprague Martinez.

Researchers found that CAFEH’s knowledge about air pollution’s effects on human health informed how construction and community planning projects were completed. For example, developers have incorporated mitigation measures, such as high-efficiency air filters, to lessen the health effects of near-roadway air pollution. Municipal and state policies, including pending legislation that would require mitigation in new near-roadway schools and homes, were also influenced by CAFEH research findings.

“Our iterative, health lens analysis-facilitated stakeholder engagement brought the community’s concerns to the attention of government officials,” said Brugge. “Our latest research is a trial of portable air filters in homes near the highway in Somerville. The American Heart Association, NIEHS, and others have recently called for trials of this sort to evaluate their efficacy. I feel that our community partnership pushed us to be ahead of the curve on this issue.”