Abstract
Government-led pollution prevention programs tend to focus on large businesses due to their potential to pollute larger quantities, therefore leaving a gap in programs targeting small and home-based businesses. In light of this gap, we set out to determine if a voluntary, peer education approach led by female, Hispanic community health workers (promotoras) can influence small and home-based businesses to implement pollution prevention strategies on-site. This paper describes a partnership between promotoras from a non-profit organization and researchers from a university working together to reach these businesses in a predominately Hispanic area of Tucson, Arizona. From 2008 to 2011, the promotora-led pollution prevention program reached a total of 640 small and home-based businesses. Program activities include technical trainings for promotoras and businesses, generation of culturally and language appropriate educational materials, and face-to-face peer education via multiple on-site visits. To determine the overall effectiveness of the program, surveys were used to measure best practices implemented on-site, perceptions towards pollution prevention, and overall satisfaction with the industry-specific trainings. This paper demonstrates that promotoras can promote the implementation of pollution prevention best practices by Hispanic small and home-based businesses considered “hard-to-reach” by government-led programs.
Highlights
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) defines pollution prevention (P2)as, “reducing or eliminating waste at the source, promoting the use of non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques, and re-using materials rather than putting them into the waste stream” [1]
We set out to determine whether the promotora-led P2 program, a voluntary peer education approach, would influence Hispanic small and home-based businesses to change behaviors and apply
Fifteen additional technical trainings were designed for these promotoras that included environmental exposure, contaminant transport of industrial solvents, air quality, water conservation, and business-specific P2 best practices
Summary
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) defines pollution prevention (P2)as, “reducing or eliminating waste at the source, promoting the use of non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques, and re-using materials rather than putting them into the waste stream” [1]. Formal P2 intervention programs employed by government agencies traditionally focus on large businesses due to their potential for sizeable pollution events as demonstrated by highly publicized chemical spills [2]. Pollution generated by small businesses is more significant than one would think primarily because small businesses are not aware of their potential to pollute and often they do not implement even minimal P2 practices [3,4]. Home-based businesses are an understudied small business sector. They function at an even smaller scale than the average small business, and many times exhibit inadequate chemical management and P2 infrastructures. There is a gap in government-led P2 programs that target small and home-based businesses
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