Kelly Pennell, Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Director of the University of Kentucky Superfund Research Center (UKSRC), alongside Anna Hoover, Assistant Professor in the Department of Preventative Medicine and Environmental Health in the College of Public Health and UKSRC researcher, collaborated with researchers at Purdue University and Ohio State University on a recent publication titled: “Bystander Chemical Exposures and Injuries Associated with Nearby Plastic Sewer Pipe Manufacture: Public Health Practice and Lessons”. This publication highlights potential health risks associated with infrastructure repair approaches and identified changes for policy, practice, and future research that can help prevent or at least minimize human exposures and related illnesses when we use low-cost cured-in-place piping technology.
This paper represents more than a year of collaboration among researchers at Purdue and Ohio State, along with Pennell and Hoover at UK, to understand both scientific and stakeholder-driven questions so that they could provide industry, public health, and environmental organizations with critical risk and prevention information.
Pennell works with a team of researchers who address engineering questions related to sustainable communities. They intentionally integrate stakeholder knowledge as part of their research process. Working together and interweaving knowledge from various sources is critical for civil engineers who strive to practice stewardship of the environment, infrastructure, and communities.