Building our communities around health
About
The need to strengthen environmental health capacity includes addressing land use and community design, harmful chemical exposure, and environmental threats in built up areas. Support for smart growth is crucial for state and local officials, policy-makers, public health workers, and planners to reshape primary factors leading to injury and disease.
Resources
Chemicals in the Environment
ASTHO Green Chemistry 101 (webinar)
This webinar addressed the principles of green chemistry, the health effects of industrial chemicals, and policy barriers to green chemistry. The guest speakers were Drs. Megan Schwarzman and Michael Wilson of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health at University of California, Berkeley.
State Chemicals Policy Database (external site)
Database of more than 700 state and local legislative and executive branch policies from all 50 states, from 1990 to the present.
Health Impact Assessments
Health Impact Assessments (HIA) are a means for decision makers, such as planners and departments of transportation, to identify the health consequences of their actions and make informed decisions about land use and development. Through five pilot capacity building grants from ASTHO and CDC, state health agencies are building their capacity to provide training and technical assistance on the health impacts of built environment projects and policies. Training and technical assistance topics include HIAs; the use of health-supporting principles (e.g., smart growth and complete street principles) in making local transportation, planning, and zoning decisions; and an awareness of LEED-ND certification programs to promote healthy communities. Results from the pilot projects will be available in Spring 2010.
Healthy Places
Healthy Places (external site)
A CDC initiative seeking to balance the economic, civic, environmental, and health needs of communities through planning.
Land Use and Planning
Land use and planning can play a major role in health. The way communities are designed affects air pollution, water quality, physical activity, incidence of injury, and access to fresh fruits and vegetables. The term "smart growth" is used to describe land use and development that takes into account these factors. There is a movement nationwide to make better decisions about the way we structure our communities.
ASTHO Smart Growth Toolkit
This toolkit was developed for ASTHO by public health graduate students at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services in the winter of 2008. It is designed to introduce public health officials and related professionals to the basic concepts and guidelines of smart growth. The components of the toolkit include separate pages with resource links for sub-categories of smart growth, including air quality, land use, physical activity, etc.
Smart Growth Network (external site)
ASTHO is the only national public health organization to be accepeted into the Smart Growth Network, which raises awareness of the implications of land use decisions for the economy, community, and the environment. The Florida Department of Health is also a member of the Smart Growth Network, and the first health partner to join the group.
Legislation
EPA State Policy Tracking (external site)
NCSL Healthy Community Design Legislation Database (external site)
Staff
Gino Marinucci, MPH, Senior Director, Environmental Health
Lindsey Realmuto, Analyst, Environmental Health
Kerry Williams, MEM, Director, Environmental Health