So you’re <i>literally</i> taking the piss?! Critically analysing and accounting for ethics (and risk) in interdisciplinary research on children and plastics

Kraftl, Peter; Lynch, Iseult; Jarman, Polly; Menzel, Alice; Walker, Amy V.; Till, Ruth; Hadfield‐Hill, Sophie

doi:10.1080/14733285.2021.1875124

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Importantly, outputs should be co-created and communicated with stakeholders, such as families and children themselves. Including children in the study of their own exposure to plastics and other nanomaterials may be both an exercise in interdisciplinary research, as well as an opportunity for citizen science and awareness-building among those most affected ( Kraftl et al. 2021 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Children’s Health Perspective on Nano- and Microplastics

Sripada

Wierzbicka

Abass

et al. 2022

Environ Health Perspect

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Background: Pregnancy, infancy, and childhood are sensitive windows for environmental exposures. Yet the health effects of exposure to nano- and microplastics (NMPs) remain largely uninvestigated or unknown. Although plastic chemicals are a well-established research topic, the impacts of plastic particles are unexplored, especially with regard to early life exposures. Objectives: This commentary aims to summarize the knowns and unknowns around child- and pregnancy-relevant exposures to NMPs via inhalation, placental transfer, ingestion and breastmilk, and dermal absorption. Methods: A comprehensive literature search to map the state of the science on NMPs found 37 primary research articles on the health relevance of NMPs during early life and revealed major knowledge gaps in the field. We discuss opportunities and challenges for quantifying child-specific exposures (e.g., NMPs in breastmilk or infant formula) and health effects, in light of global inequalities in baby bottle use, consumption of packaged foods, air pollution, hazardous plastic disposal, and regulatory safeguards. We also summarize research needs for linking child health and NMP exposures and address the unknowns in the context of public health action. Discussion: Few studies have addressed child-specific sources of exposure, and exposure estimates currently rely on generic assumptions rather than empirical measurements. Furthermore, toxicological research on NMPs has not specifically focused on child health, yet children’s immature defense mechanisms make them particularly vulnerable. Apart from few studies investigating the placental transfer of NMPs, the physicochemical properties (e.g., polymer, size, shape, charge) driving the absorption, biodistribution, and elimination in early life have yet to be benchmarked. Accordingly, the evidence base regarding the potential health impacts of NMPs in early life remains sparse. Based on the evidence to date, we provide recommendations to fill research gaps, stimulate policymakers and industry to address the safety of NMPs, and point to opportunities for families to reduce early life exposures to plastic. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9086

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Children’s Health Perspective on Nano- and Microplastics

Sripada

Wierzbicka

Abass

et al. 2022

Environ Health Perspect

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“…Taking place over an 18-month period, the project was led by a human geographer but involved collaboration with environmental nanoscientists, social media analysts, teachers, artists and children themselves. Two parts of the project (not discussed in this paper) involved analyses of millions of Twitter and eBay posts, and the sampling of water, soil, breath and urine collected from children for the presence of plastics (Kraftl, 2020; Kraftl et al, 2021). Here, however, we focus on an intensive programme of research in a secondary school located in Birmingham, a large city in the English Midlands, with a group of 13 children aged 11–15.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These discussions, and the workshops, were recorded using a digital Dictaphone and/or written notes, and analysed iteratively through discussion in the interviews and workshops, with subsequent thematic coding by the lead author. The project underwent ethical review at the authors’ University and, given the inclusion of biosampling methods, entailed the development of a new series of ethical protocols (see Kraftl et al, 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Articulating encounters between children and plastics

et al. 2022

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In the context of global concerns about plastics, this paper sets out and exemplifies a research agenda for articulating children’s encounters with plastics. The paper analyses data co-produced with 11–15 year-olds through interviews, app-based research and experimental/arts-led workshops. It moves beyond scholarship in health and environmental sciences, and in environmental education research, to outline a far richer range of ways to conceptualise children’s encounters with plastics, based in children’s everyday, embodied and emotive interactions with plastics.

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“…How can research ethics processes better work with understandings of ethics as embodied practices and as continually negotiated between researchers and participants (Blazek & Askins, 2020; Dekeyser & Garrett, 2018; McAreavey & Muir, 2011; Smith, 2012)? Or, to borrow a term from Kraftl et al (2021), how can these processes support and account for the ‘response‐ability’ of researchers in unexpected, situated ethical moments during fieldwork?…”

Section: Critiques Of Dominant Research Ethics Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond ‘do no harm’? On the need for a dynamic approach to research ethics

Hammett

Jackson

Bramley

2022

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Many social scientists criticise the functioning of research ethics boards and review processes for imposing medicoscientific ethics approaches and marginalising reflective practices (Wynn, 2017). While the maxim of 'do no harm' rightly remains the modus operandi of the ethics process, by focusing solely on this tenet ethical review processes often fall short of ensuring that research is experienced and understood as ethical (Hugman et al., 2011). Taking inspiration from previous calls for participatory ethics (e.g., Pain, 2008), we propose some possible strategies for moving towards a more dynamic, engaging, and inclusive ethics process.

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So you’re literally taking the piss?! Critically analysing and accounting for ethics (and risk) in interdisciplinary research on children and plastics

Abstract: So you're literally taking the piss?! Critically analysing and accounting for ethics (and risk) in interdisciplinary research on children and plastics', Children's Geographies.

Cited by 11 publications

References 45 publications

A Children’s Health Perspective on Nano- and Microplastics

A Children’s Health Perspective on Nano- and Microplastics

Articulating encounters between children and plastics

Beyond ‘do no harm’? On the need for a dynamic approach to research ethics

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