Evan Perreault
Article Annotation 2
1. Brown, Phil. "Qualitative Methods In Environmental Health Research." Environmental Health
Perspectives (2003): 1-10. Print.
2. The author, Phil Brown, currently works at Brown University in Rhode Island, where he is a
Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies. Brown received his Bachelors of Arts in
History from Long Island University, from where he went on to earn his Masters’ from NYU,
and finally worked to earn his Ph. D. from Brandeis University in Sociology. Dr. Brown has an
extensive list of published works including books, articles, and papers. Some notable
publications of his might include “Does Green Mask Gray?: Environmental Equity Issues at the
Metropolitan Level,” and “Social Movements and Health.”
3. Some of the main topics that this article addresses are ethnographic studies in contaminated
communities, qualitative research from studies of the Woburn, MA childhood leukemia cluster,
contested environmental illnesses, and future directions in federal research funding policy,
advocacy science, and citizen-science alliances. Brown delves into these topics in a very
interesting way and goes on to outline his real argument with this article.
4. One of the most prevalent arguments of Brown’s article was the question of the role of citizens
in identifying causes of disease or sickness in their locale. This argument is also fueled by his
interpretation that social scientists are seemingly disinterested in community health threats. The
need for both quantitative and qualitative epidemiological studies was also an argument
foundation that flowed through this article and was touched on in the various studies he analyzed
or conducted.
5. Phil Brown uses some very strong evidence from the environmental sociology field’s history
to support his topics and arguments and he does this in several ways. One way is through his
analysis of Kai Erikson’s report of the Buffalo Creek incident. This report and political instance
put human-caused environmental disaster on the table as a serious problem, leading the way for a
closer look into the infrastructure of our nation that could, or already was causing potentially
serious harm to its citizens. As for Brown’s leukemia study in Woburn, MA, which is
summarized in his co-written book, No Safe Place, he studied the community’s malcontent with
the quality of their drinking water supply. Despite significant outcry from the people of Woburn,
city and state officials diluted any attempt to test the water. As a result, it was found that
maximum levels of highly toxic chemicals and organic compounds were found in water supplies,
to which dozens of cases of leukemia in children were later attributed. The last cornerstone of
evidence that Brown really draws upon is the idea of collaboration between the community
group and federal agencies and private commercial organizations. The need for this collaboration
and communication is extremely important because it allows the most direct route for
information to flow between those who are affected and those how can affect the greatest
change. The effect of this would be very significant and would allow both ends to actively play a
role in the remediation of serious societal problems.
6. “The qualitative researcher must decide how to frame the study, and thus how to tell the
story.”
“For example, researchers studying potential environmental causes of breast cancer in
collaboration with community groups have used innovative methods such as creating life
histories of possible exposures and conducting shopping trips to determine chemical exposures
from common household and commercial products.
“Despite such limiting criteria for government funding, there are an increasing number of
academic–community partnerships and related collaboration grants that by their very nature call
or qualitative methods either alone or in partnership with quantitative methods.”
7. What drew Brown to study the link between community based environmental disasters and
social scientists with regards to effectiveness of response by various agencies?
How can a direction or change of direction be validated when reporting a study while remaining
flexible?
What type of obstacles are faced with trying to obtain funding for qualitative research
opportunities?
8. Qualitative and quantitative epidemiological studies
Objectivity of the researcher and influences that would induce bias, empathy, and personal view
Historical patterns in responsiveness to potentially serious community threats or disasters that
occurred following the Buffalo Creek incident