Improving disclosure and consent: "is it safe?": new ethics for reporting personal exposures to environmental chemicals

Am J Public Health. 2007 Sep;97(9):1547-54. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2006.094813. Epub 2007 Jul 31.

Abstract

The recent flood of research concerning pollutants in personal environmental and biological samples-blood, urine, breastmilk, household dust and air, umbilical cord blood, and other media-raises questions about whether and how to report results to individual study participants. Clinical medicine provides an expert-driven framework, whereas community-based participatory research emphasizes participants' right to know and the potential to inform action even when health effects are uncertain. Activist efforts offer other models. We consider ethical issues involved in the decision to report individual results in exposure studies and what information should be included. Our discussion is informed by our experience with 120 women in a study of 89 pollutants in homes and by interviews with other researchers and institutional review board staff.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Air Pollution, Indoor / adverse effects*
  • Air Pollution, Indoor / analysis
  • Air Pollution, Indoor / ethics
  • Beneficence
  • Biomarkers / analysis*
  • Breast Neoplasms / chemically induced
  • Community Participation
  • Decision Making / ethics*
  • Disclosure / ethics*
  • Environmental Exposure / adverse effects*
  • Environmental Exposure / analysis
  • Environmental Exposure / ethics
  • Ethics Committees, Research
  • Ethics, Clinical
  • Ethics, Research*
  • Female
  • Hazardous Substances / analysis
  • Hazardous Substances / toxicity*
  • Humans
  • Informed Consent / ethics*
  • Interviews as Topic
  • Massachusetts
  • Personal Autonomy
  • Residence Characteristics
  • Social Justice
  • Social Responsibility
  • United States

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Hazardous Substances