Open AccessPrivacy and Ethics in Pediatric Environmental Health Research—Part II: Protecting Families and Communities
Author(s) -
Celia B. Fisher
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
environmental health perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.257
H-Index - 282
eISSN - 1552-9924
pISSN - 0091-6765
DOI - 10.1289/ehp.9004
Subject(s) - confidentiality , informed consent , context (archaeology) , research ethics , ethnic group , environmental health , public relations , psychology , political science , medicine , law , geography , alternative medicine , archaeology , pathology , psychiatry
In pediatric environmental health research, information about family members is often directly sought or indirectly obtained in the process of identifying child risk factors and helping to tease apart and identify interactions between genetic and environmental factors. However, federal regulations governing human subjects research do not directly address ethical issues associated with protections for family members who are not identified as the primary "research participant." Ethical concerns related to family consent and privacy become paramount as pediatric environmental health research increasingly turns to questions of gene-environment interactions.