Environmental Health Policy Guides

Introduction

Health in All Policies (HiAP) can be defined as a collaborative approach that integrates and articulates health considerations into policy making and programming across sectors, and at all levels, to improve the health of all communities and people.

Collaboration

At the state level, HiAP depends on interagency or cross-sectoral collaboration. Because collaboration is essential for integrating HiAP, strategies for successful collaboration, as well as a sample agenda for a partnering meeting, are included in this collaboration guide.

Implementation Strategies

A comprehensive HiAP approach can include a variety of implementation strategies at different levels and may include some elements of collaboration, education, assessment, consultation, program development, and policy.

ASTHO’s second set of policy guides aim to showcase state and federal programs, initiatives, and policies that exemplify fruitful cross-sector partnerships and improve our overall food safety system.

Introduction

Food choices are often shaped by policies that originate outside the health sector and therefore require significant cross-sector collaboration. For example, policies that promote access to local healthy food stores may require collaboration between the land use or planning, agriculture, commerce, and transportation departments and the business community. Policies that improve access to healthier foods in schools require partnerships between local and state health and education departments, and policies that promote food safety often require partnerships between health agencies and agriculture departments. The purpose of the Healthy Food Policies Introduction is to highlight how policies of other sectors, such as agricultural, transportation, or land use, can be strengthened to improve the nation's health. The cross-sector collaboration necessary to advance healthy policies is at the core of a HiAP approach.

Access to Healthy Food Choices

Collaborative, multi-sector approaches like HiAP may help improve nutrition and reduce the risk of chronic disease. Improved access to healthy food is a goal that partners can share across sectors and at all levels of government. Many policies and programs that enable access to healthy food choices focus on increasing the availability, affordability, and awareness of healthy foods and nutrition. Examples of policy and programs that improve access through cross-sectoral collaboration are shared.

School Nutrition

Creating a healthier school food system and improving school nutrition requires more than just new recipes and menus. It takes a systems approach-one that requires reevaluating existing school food systems, developing new partnerships, and investing in new strategies.

Food Safety

Food safety is a core public health issue. With today's far-reaching and complex food supply chain, there is an increasing need to find more effective solutions to better protect consumers by preventing food contamination. A HiAP approach for improving food safety works best when there is a clear mandate for coordination and engagement with stakeholders inside and outside of government.

Food Defense

Food safety concerns used to focus solely on accidental contamination. However, in recent years there has been concern about intentional contamination by introducing biological, chemical, or radiological agents into the food supply. To enhance food defense preparedness, a HiAP approach that builds cross-sector initiatives and partnerships needs to be established and maintained among multiple federal, state, and local agencies and organizations.

Food Contamination

Each point along the farm-to-fork continuum has its own unique challenge. Food can get contaminated during production, processing, distribution, or preparation. Food safety is enhanced by taking a HiAP approach that integrates health considerations during food transportation and distribution.

Food Production

Safe food production and processing practices help reduce animal-to-human disease transmission and crop diseases. Good agricultural and food production policies that include health considerations and take a HiAP approach can lead to safer and healthier food.

ASTHO has developed a series of policy guides that identify federal, state and local policies, programs, and initiatives that have successfully incorporated a Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach to encourage healthy housing. HiAP efforts bring together diverse stakeholders to improve health while advancing other goals. There are many ways to integrate HiAP approaches into the housing arena, and the corresponding guides showcase some successful examples. The guides are organized by broad themes, and include more specific program and policy suggestions within each document.

Introduction

HiAP can be defined as a collaborative approach that integrates and articulates health considerations into policy making and programming across sectors, and at all levels, to improve the health of all communities and people. The policies and programs that create and nurture healthy homes require partnerships between myriad state and local agencies. The Introduction to Health in All Policies and Housing resource details the ways in which cross-sector collaboration is crucial to creating and nurturing healthy homes.

Aging in Place

This aging in place guide showcases programs across America that address seniors' needs and wishes.

Access to Public Transportation and Opportunities for Active Transportation

This active transportation guide provides examples of housing-related programs and policies that incorporate opportunities for active transportation and physical activity.

Mental Health and Social Cohesion

This mental health policy guide will highlight some of the research connecting housing and mental health and identify opportunities to advance mental health and community cohesion through improvements in the built environment.

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design

This crime prevention guide outlines examples of collaborative programs, policies, and initiatives that address crime prevention concerns and ultimately lead to healthier communities.

State and Federal Healthy Housing Financial Opportunities

While not exhaustive, this financial opportunities document identifies several place-based initiatives that finance residential and community health improvement projects.

ASTHO has developed a series of transportation, land use, and community design cross-sectoral, evidence-based policy guides. The guides were developed using multiple resources from credible sources that catalogue policies that link transportations and health. Other sources of information for the guide came from feedback from CDC, national transportation experts, ASTHO’s Health in All Policies Steering Committee and Advisory Groups, and ASTHO’s communications team. The guides are organized by broad policy concepts and more specific policy suggestions, they are meant to serve as a starting point for conversations between health agencies and their transportation and community design counterparts.

Introduction

The Healthy Transportation Policies Introduction explains how transportation, land use, and community design can have significant impacts on both physical and mental health and how state and local agencies, community organizations, and universities are working together to coordinate policy and program initiatives that could improve transportation access.

Access to Public Transportation

Public transportation systems reduce the need for single occupancy vehicle trips, reduce automobile emissions, increase physical activity, and provide necessary transport access for people with physical, economic or other limitations that impede access to or use of personal vehicles.

Transportation Safety

Injuries and fatalities due to motor vehicle crashes are a major public health issue. Although significant improvements have been made in the last few decades, much work is left to be done improving transportation safety.

Transportation Quality

Policies and investments that improve public transportation quality can be win-win strategies for health and transportation agencies, providing diverse benefits and attracting broad support from a variety of interest groups.

Transit-Oriented Development

Transit-oriented development can promote health by reducing transportation costs, creating access to services and jobs, and providing opportunities for physical activity through carefully planned neighborhood design and accessible active transportation options.

Shifts From Driving to Public Transportation

Policies that support public transportation, walking, and biking — as well as funding to implement these policies — are essential for promoting healthier lifestyles.

Opportunities for Active Transportation

States can adopt policies and support community design that includes active transportation and ensures access for people with physical, economic or other limitations that impede access.

Use of Clean Energy Technology

Adopting emissions control strategies, clean-engine technologies, and better fuel efficiency standards has resulted in reduced vehicle emissions in jurisdictions around the country.

Improving Air Quality and Mitigating Other Sources of Pollution

Health research has established a strong relationship between air pollution and health effects ranging from respiratory symptoms to the onset and exacerbation of chronic heart and lung diseases.

Comprehensive Regional Planning

Integrating public health concepts into regional plans is a promising method for ensuring healthy communities.

Healthy Transportation Resource Guide

The healthy transportation policy concepts included in the resource guide have been selected from the resources on this page, based on significant evidence from scientific literature that they are health-supporting.

ASTHO has developed a series of policy guides that identify federal, state and local policies, programs, and initiatives that have successfully incorporated a Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach to improve water quality and quantity. HiAP efforts bring together diverse stakeholders to improve health while advancing other goals. There are many ways to integrate HiAP approaches into water management, and the corresponding guides showcase some successful examples. The guides are organized by broad themes, and include more specific program and policy suggestions within each document.

Introduction

Government programs, from local utilities to federal highway projects, can use HiAP to make decisions that account for their services’ and activities’ health impacts. When applied to water programs, HiAP promotes a comprehensive look at how water impacts health, and behooves us to consider upstream solutions to address these impacts. Issues extend beyond meeting safe drinking water standards, and include topics of water affordability, access to an adequate water supply, stable water infrastructure, and availability of safe water for household use and recreation.

Source Water Protection

When applied to source water protection, a HiAP approach offers unique opportunities to identify the root causes of water contamination and strategies to prevent pollution. This source water protection guide discusses threats to our water supplies and examples of collaborative efforts to protect them.

Water Security

Water security refers to the availability of water for basic needs, such as for drinking, bathing, sanitation, and agriculture. Water quality and water quantity are both critical aspects of water security. Stakeholders responsible for ensuring water security are accustomed to cross-sector collaboration, and this water security guide illustrates how stakeholders from non-health sectors have already incorporated health considerations into their policies and programs. This document also identifies opportunities for public health to collaborate with external partners to mitigate and protect against emerging threats to our water supplies.

Water Justice

Water justice means that everyone has access to clean and safe water, regardless of location, type of water system, or income level. This document discusses water justice and health equity as it relates to source water protection in urban waters, unregulated drinking water and private wells, nutrient pollution, and water affordability.

Healthy Beverages

Water is essential to life. However, when it comes time to choose a beverage, many people turn to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) over water. This is at the heart of the battle on obesity. Strategies to discourage SSB consumption and encourage more water intake include educational campaigns on SSB risks, limitations on SSB sales, differing placement of SSBs and water in vending machines and restaurants, and taxes on SSBs. This healthy beverages guide discusses some promising upstream strategies and examples for promoting water as the beverage of choice.