Measuring historical pollution: Natural history collections as tools for public health and environmental justice research

Through the industrial era, pollutants have been unevenly distributed in the environment, disproportionately impacting disenfranchised communities. Redressing the unequal distribution of environmental pollution is thus a question of environmental justice and public health that requires policy solutions. However, data on pollutants for many locations and time periods are limited because environmental monitoring is largely reactive—i.e., pollutants are monitored only after they are recognized as harmful and are circulating in the environment at elevated levels. Without comprehensive historical pollution data, it is difficult to understand the full, intergenerational consequences of pollutants on environmental and human health. We assert that biological specimens in natural history collections are an underutilized source of quantitative pollution data for tracking environmental pollutants over two centuries to inform justice-centered policy solutions. Specifically, we: 1) discuss the need for quantitative pollution data in environmental research and its implications for public health and policy, 2) examine the capacity of biological specimens as tools for tracking environmental pollutants through space and time, 3) present a framework for integrating pollution datasets from specimens with spatially and temporally matched human health datasets to inform and evaluate policy, and 4) identify challenges and research directions associated with the use of quantitative pollution datasets. Biological specimens present a unique opportunity to fill critical gaps that address environmental challenges relevant to public health and policy. This work demands interdisciplinary partnerships and inclusive practices to connect data generated from specimens with urgent questions about environmental health and justice.