Hi, Atlanta!

Months after the BioLab chemical plant fire, a research project is seeking people from a six-county area to share how it affected them.

The organizers want to take an in-depth look at how the fire impacted residents of Rockdale, Newton, Walton, Gwinnett, Henry, and DeKalb counties. The online survey – you can take it at this link – allows residents to share physical, emotional, and financial impacts. The goal is to collect around 9,000 responses.

Morehouse School of Medicine researcher James Washington and the nonprofit group Community Action Now!, directed by Iffat Walker, are organizing the project. They plan to send students or interns out this summer to high-traffic areas like parks, shopping centers, and houses of worship to collect responses.

Walker and Washington also want to conduct in-depth workshops with community members to learn about problems caused by the fire and to explore potential solutions. The focus on community members’ “lived experiences” is at the heart of the project, Washington said. “It's more effective because when people look at a problem or something that they care about, oh, they could talk about that for days.”

Like many others, the researchers ran into funding snags when the federal grant they’d applied for through the Cultivating Healthy Environments program was cancelled. Still, they plan to forge ahead with the research, and Washington said he is exploring other sources of funding. The goal is to produce several scholarly papers, Washington said.

Meanwhile, I’m continuing to follow up on the BioLab fire – the investigations into how the accident happened; the cleanup at the plant site; and the lawsuits from residents and Rockdale County. Here’s my story on where it all stands. Keep me posted on how you are recovering, or any roadblocks you see.