The examples in this section are real community health studies that have been conducted in places affected by environmental contamination. It is important to note that health studies are not commonly carried out. There are many conditions that need to be met before deciding to invest the large amount of time and resources needed to conduct a health study. Learn more about these conditions here.

Although the studies in these examples have limitations and weaknesses, they provide insight into what information and resources are needed to conduct studies. They also show what types of questions health studies can answer.

In each of these examples, we provide this information:
  1. What happened in the community?
    Basic description of the environmental contamination issues and what type of health study was conducted in each community
  2. Details on the study
    Possible reasons why this type of study was chosen and its limitations
  3. Why was a health study appropriate in the community?
    The details of the study are used to answer questions from "When is a health study appropriate?" for this community
  4. Summary table
    Overview of information covered by this example