A Qualitative Risk Assessment of Farmland Heavy Metal Pollution in Taiwan

Abstract

P-793 Introduction: We used a qualitative approach to explore the environmental health risk of heavy metal pollution in Chang-Hua County, Taiwan. We investigated how rice paddies were polluted by waste water from nearby electric plating factories, and traced the discovery of and the responses to environmental health problems by local residents, legislators, the mass media, the government and the scientific community. Methods: We used an ethnographic approach to study the case. Our methods included participant observations, in-depth interviews, policy analyses, media analyses, and content analyses of documents. Results: There were broad concerns from the mass media and the Legislative Yuan of Taiwan regarding the heavy metal pollution in farmlands. In 2003, large-scale environmental remediation projects were started in order to clean up the polluted farmlands. The environmental epidemiological studies of the health effects, however, were still in progress at the time. While local residents were concerned with the health effects of the pollution, they were also skeptical of the effectiveness of the remediation, and the reusability of their farmland. Discussion and Conclusions: Although quantitative data have not yet determined the existence of environmental health effects in this case, qualitative data are valuable in understanding how lay people experience and act on their environmental health problems. We suggest that qualitative methods be incorporated with quantitative environmental health risk assessment.