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How AI Can Help Strengthen Grassroots Organizing

Image Credit: Tensorspark

By Gregory Kolen II.

Environmental justice is an issue that affects everyone, but those who bear the brunt of it are often the most vulnerable members of society. Disadvantaged communities, specifically, are often the ones living in areas with poor air quality, contaminated water sources, and unregulated disposal of waste. These challenges have been longstanding and difficult to overcome, as they require significant resources and political will. Yet, in recent years, emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) have emerged to support community leaders and organizations working towards environmental justice.

Boosting activism through data: AI can assess and analyze vast amounts of data to help grassroots organizers tailor their messaging based on the demographics, behavior, and attitudes of their target audience. By better understanding the needs of the communities they serve, organizers can create more effective and convincing campaigns that are more likely to drive action.

Streamlining operations: Organizers can improve the efficiency of their operations and decision-making processes, allowing them to work more effectively and achieve their goals more quickly. AI can help organizers automate routine tasks, which saves time and energy, allowing them to focus on more complicated tasks that require human expertise.

Amplifying voices: Magnify the voices of marginalized communities with AI-powered chatbots. Amplify the stories and experiences of those most affected by environmental injustices. This can help grassroots organizers build empathy and support for their causes among those in power, as well as among the broader public.

Improving outreach: Organizers can reach out to a more extensive and precisley targeted diverse audience. AI-powered tools can help create more targeted promotional materials and reach out to individuals who might not have been reached through traditional methods. This can help organizers increase the reach of their initiatives and attract more support.

Identifying environmental issues in communities: AI tools can help communities identify and monitor environmental hazards in their surroundings. For instance, using machine learning and remote sensing technologies, it is possible to map and classify toxic hotspots or areas with high pollution levels. Real-time air and water quality monitoring sensors can also provide early warning systems that allow communities to take the necessary precautions.

Empower communities through data and citizen science: Citizen science is an approach that empowers communities to gather data, conduct research, and create solutions. AI tools can help democratize scientific research by enabling communities to communicate their findings and analyses. Collectively, high-quality data can be used to ascertain environmental health disparities. For instance, EarthAI, a nonprofit organization, aims to provide equal access to AI-assisted satellite imagery, which can be used to map and track environmental health indicators.

Influencing Policies: AI tools can be used to predict the impact of policies on marginalized communities. For instance, researchers can use machine learning models to identify areas where environmental policy interventions are most needed, based on critical community characteristics and environmental hazards. Such data and insights can be shared with policymakers to develop effective policies that prioritize environmental justice.

There are numerous ways that emerging AI technology can be used to help strengthen grassroots organizing efforts for environmental justice. From boosting activism through data analysis to amplifying voices and improving outreach, AI has the potential to help empower grassroots organizers and create more profound change by identifying environmental hazards, empowering communities through data and citizen science, influencing policies, raising advocacy and awareness, and reducing disparities. While AI is not a magic solution, it has the potential to create a pathway towards a more just future and better outcomes for all communities.

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Health Effects of PFAS in Drinking Water

The glass is always... we're screwed comic.
Image credit: Jim Morissey

By Leila Waid.

As a research project for a university course, I conducted a literature review and systematic analysis of the health effects of PFAS in drinking water. This blog post contains a highlight and broad overview of the health effects discovered.

The systematic analysis included 44 observational epidemiological studies focused on PFAS-contaminated water as the exposure and adverse health effects as the outcome of interest. (For inquiries, references to individual studies, or any other information about the information about the systematic review study, email info@chej.org).

The results:

PFAS in drinking water is associated with a variety of different health effects. However, it is important to note that the results included here do not prove causation. In other words, the studies cannot prove that PFAS caused these health issues, only that an increase in PFAS exposure is associated with these health effects.

  • Cardiovascular health: increase in “bad” cholesterol, triglyceride lipids, blood pressure, hypertensive pregnancy disorder.
  • Hormonal health (endocrine system): impaired thyroid function, disruption in the growth hormone IGF-1 in children, lower levels of estradiol and testosterone, increase in Poly-Cystic Ovary Syndrome, fibroids, and testicular cancer.
  • Immune health: increase in adverse health effects from COVID-19, disruption in inflammation production, lower immune cell count and production, increase in ulcerative colitis (stomach ulcers).
  • Urinary system health: kidney function impairment, kidney cancer, bladder cancer
  • Digestive system: esophageal cancer.
  • Neonatal (infant) health: lower birthweight and small for gestational age.
  • PFAS has also been found to cause epigenetic changes, which is a process through which our environment impacts how our genes are expressed. In other words, it does not change the actual DNA structure, but how the body reads the DNA sequence. Specifically, PFAS is associated with DNA methylation (a process through which chemicals attach to a DNA chain and turn a specific gene on or off. This process affects how the gene is read).
  • Mortality: exposure to PFAS associated with all-cause mortality, as well as mortalities from liver cancer, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, myocardial infarction, kidney cancer, breast cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Neurological system: developmental language disorder.
  • Skeletal system: increase in bone fractures (hip, proximal humeral, and distal forearm fractures).
  • Non-regional specific: mesothelioma cancer (affects tissues around organs), increase in multi-morbidity (multiple chronic morbidities occurring at the same time).
  • Mental health: increased anxiety, financial stress around health issues, emotional distress due to worrying about living in PFAS-contaminated region. Also, PFAS was associated with an increase in behavioral problems among children. 

It is important to note that all the adverse health effects discussed above were found from observational studies on human health, not animal or in vitro (cell) studies. Although the findings cannot prove causation, they still paint an alarming picture for human health. The results showcase that urgent and robust policy action is needed at the federal and state levels to protect our waterways from PFAS contamination. This situation is critical because almost half (45%) of all tap water systems in the U.S. have PFAS contamination. And one study found that an estimated 97% of all Americans have PFAS in their blood streams.