Citizen science, when conducted in a responsible, respected manner that adheres to the scientific process, can protect the health and well-being of individuals and consumers being exposed to environmental and other threats that might otherwise go undetected.
"Citizen science mobilizes the public to participate in the scientific process to address problems," said Dr. Robert Emery, vice president for safety, health, environment and risk management at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. "This can include identifying research questions, making new discoveries, and developing technologies and applications."
Addressing attendees of the Houston Area Safety Council (HASC) Safety Day and the Gulf Coast Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers' (ASSE) Professional Development Conference, Emery lauded citizen science for heightening citizen awareness about an issue or concern, exposing citizens to the scientific method and making the public aware of issues of how science can impact policy.
"It can also expose individuals and their kids to career fields in the sciences," Emery said.
Admirably, numerous citizen science projects, which can be found at CitizenScience.gov, are supported by the EPA, including Amigos Bravos, an urban waters program that tests and analyzes baseline water quality with support from volunteers and local students, and Cyanomonitoring, which documents the occurrence and timing of harmful algae blooms.
Addressing 'citizen junk science'
But when citizen science ignores the scientific method or is driven by faulty vetting, emotional factors or even ego, it can be an unnecessary and dangerous device that can needlessly mislead or even imperil thousands of people.
"The concept of citizen science represents an opportunity to further understanding and knowledge about the issues and challenges that face us all," Emery said. "But the process can be easily derailed by bias and selective data analysis or other confounders."
For example, what happens when citizen science turns into citizen journalism or citizen commentary?
The expansion of social media has enabled citizen scientists to disseminate photos, emails, tweets and other web postings about perceived issues to very large undiscerning audiences before the scientific process has been completed and properly vetted, he explained.
"The ubiquitous nature of monitoring and sampling capabilities has greatly expanded citizen science capabilities," he said. "Health and safety professionals should be aware of these issues now, considering both the policy and emotional aspects."
This problem is so significant, Emery believes it should become an objective for professional organizations and health, safety and environmental leaders to adopt the "major mission" to monitor "citizen bunk or citizen junk."
"Then post factual information on their website, not to get into a battle, but just to get back to the facts of whatever the issues are -- what is known in science and what is not known," he said. "That is going to have to become an important mission for organizations in the future, or collectively we are going to have to spend a lot of time-fighting these battles individually."
It is vitally important for employees "to hear it from the top" that companies are concerned about their health and safety, Emery said.
"The time for us to be thinking about this is now, while we're in a non-crisis mode," he concluded. "Maybe we should think how, within our organizations and society, to respond to these things without giving the impression that we don't care. Because we're definitely concerned."
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