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Environmental
Health
Overview
The key to addressing environmental health issues is
first recognizing how environmental factors effect health.
Environmental health issues in a community can vary
from air quality and lead-based paint abatement to water
pollution and landfill contamination. Environmental
factors can cause diseases and conditions such as asthma,
birth defects, allergies, cancer, food poisoning, and
lyme disease. RC/EZ/ECs can take advantage of the many
agencies, organizations, and initiatives that focus
on environmental health issues. These include, but are
not limited to, the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the
National Center for
Environmental Health, the Environmental
Protection Agency, and ZAP
Asthma.
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Stories
and Models from the field
Stamping out the Scourge of Lead Poisoning
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, EC (Round I)
Ninety-five percent of Harrisburg's housing units were
constructed before 1980 and have high concentrations
of lead-based paint. Approximately 82 percent of these
housing units are occupied by low-income families. In
1995, through a $1.2 million United States Department
of Housing and Urban Development Lead Hazard Reduction
Grant, Harrisburg established a program that includes
efforts to reduce lead hazards in homes as well as education
and awareness activities geared toward children who
are the most susceptible to lead poisoning.
The Harrisburg EC has developed a specific marketing
approach to reach its community members. Each summer
the Pinnacle Health System's Childhood Lead Poisoning
Prevention Center (CLPPC), in partnership with the city
of Harrisburg, conducts Lead Hazard Awareness Campaigns.
Through a variety of interactive and fun activities,
children learn what to do to avoid lead poisoning. These
educational programs have included "Sesame Street's"
Oscar and Elmo in 1996, "Sargeant Lead" in 1997, and
the "Lead Detective" in 1998. The 1998 Lead Awareness
Campaign reached 70 preschoolers at city daycare centers
with its lead-poisoning prevention message.
Recently, the city was awarded another $1.2 million
HUD grant, as well as a $500,000 State grant to continue
this successful program. With the extra funding, a public
health nurse was hired to conduct special public education
events for children and door-to-door screening in high-risk
area and at homeless shelters, soup kitchens and city
schools. The nurse also provides family counseling on
managing lead hazards and reducing a child's exposure.
She conducts testing in houses prior to rehabilitation
and conducts dust wipes following lead reduction activity.
This strategy combines marketing through education with
strategies to determine and eliminate lead poisoning
risk.
Specific strategies to eliminate the threat of lead
poisoning have been put into place as well. Specially
trained contractors remove lead hazards in homes where
children have been identified by Pinnacle's CLPPC as
having elevated lead levels in their blood. The lead
reduction is conducted in conjunction with other housing
rehabilitation to bring the homes into compliance with
city codes. Families can temporarily relocate to a safe
house while the lead hazard reduction is underway in
their homes. The program also eliminates lead hazards
in vacant houses being rehabilitated for sale to homebuyers
under the city's Homeownership Opportunities Program.
A measure of the program's success so far has been
the 50-percent reduction in positive blood test results
in initial screenings.
Water Line Extensions Provide More Residents With
Safe Drinking Water
Kentucky Highlands EZ (Round I)
Contamination of water resources with disease-causing
agents, whether biological or chemical, can have a major
impact on public health. Because of this, clean drinking
water is one of the most important environmental components
of ensuring a community's health. When the Kentucky
Highlands community was awarded EZ status, many residents
in the zone did not have access to safe drinking water
in their homes. Some residents would use water from
wells that were contaminated, perhaps boiling the water
or treating it with bleach, others would have to haul
water from treated supplies, or purchase bottled water
for drinking. Expanding the Water Treatment System in
the EZ was a top priority for community leaders. Community
leaders were able to leverage infrastructure funding
for the expansion with a USDA-Rural Development project
to increase resident's access to potable water. Currently,
over 96% of families in the Wayne County section of
the empowerment zone now have treated water due to more
than $3 million in water expansions. Almost 1,800 new
households have been added to the system since the area
was designated an empowerment zone.
Environmental Remediation Revives the American Street
Corridor
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Round I)
Toxic and hazardous substances deposited on land often
are carried from their sources by air, groundwater and
surface water runoff to pose a health threat. The Philadelphia
EZ decided to clean up an environmental mess in their
community, and use the remediated land to retain a business
that was losing their property lease in the EZ. In doing
so a potential health hazard was removed, and jobs were
retained.
"Last year's biggest success," says Dan Gundersen,
"was the empowerment zone's first new construction in
15 years." At the center of the American Street corridor
lie three strategic acres that had been the bane of
city leaders for more than 10 years. Formerly home to
Sovereign Oil, the site was an environmental nightmare
in terms of health, safety and quality of life. The
abandoned site attracted illegal dumping, drug use and
other criminal activity. Children would sometimes wander
onto the unfenced site to play in and around the tanks,
which had interior steps.
The Empowerment Zone conducted concerted outreach efforts
to identify an end user for this site–the Asia
Foods Company, which was in need of expansion space
and was in the process of closing down its old site
in the neighborhood. The EZ was successful in securing
$900,000 in State funds and the city provided $300,000.
The State Department of Environmental Protection, the
Coast Guard, the Licenses and Inspections division,
and other city services came together to work on the
area. Above- and below-ground storage tanks were removed.
The ground, which had once oozed so much oil that the
street had to be barricaded, was drained.
Remediation of the site was finished in 90 days. Construction
of a new warehouse began shortly thereafter. As a result
of this effort, 48 jobs were retained, and at least
24 new jobs were created. This project has signaled
the resurgence of the American Street Corridor as a
viable area for economic development. Several other
nearby sites are being assessed for remediation and
new construction, which will eventually contribute to
a healthier environment as well as create new jobs.
Community Outreach for Reducing Environmental Triggers
of Asthma
Atlanta, Georgia EZ (Round I)
Asthma is a problem of epidemic proportions in impoverished,
inner city neighborhoods. In the Atlanta EZ, these epidemic
rates are even worse–with 2,000 emergency room
visits and 300 hospital admissions each year by children
in the community. The ZAP Asthma, prevention program
offers a participatory approach to health-risk communication
and is targeted to a cluster of neighborhoods with a
high prevalence of childhood asthma in the Empowerment
Zone.
A team of community outreach workers visit families
in their homes to conduct environmental audits of homes
where children with asthma live. They also coordinate
environmental interventions and work with families to
sustain the interventions that reduce exposure to known
asthma triggers. These interventions include encasing
bedding and pillows to reduce exposure to dust mites,
the eradication of cockroaches, effective housecleaning
methods to reduce exposure to dust and mold, and health
promotion strategies to reduce exposure to environmental
tobacco smoke.
The CDC developed the protocol the community health
workers are delivering. "We have learned from previous
studies that if we reduce these triggers in a laboratory
setting, then a child's asthma will improve," says William
C. Parra, deputy director of the CDC's National Center
for Environmental Health and member of ZAP Asthma. The
challenge has been replicating these results in an applied
setting. A key to the programs success has been their
ability to recruit health workers from the community,
who are more readily accepted into resident's homes.
For more information, visit the ZAP
Asthma website.
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Tools
HUD E-Maps
A free Internet service that combines information on
HUD's community development and housing programs with
EPA's environmental data. HUD E-Maps provide;
- Location, type and performance of HUD-funded activities
in every neighborhood across the country; and
- Select EPA information on brownfields, hazardous
wastes, air pollution and waste water discharges.
Green Communities
Assistance Kit
The Green Communities Assistance Kit that you will
find at this site provides access to sustainable community
indicators, community participation tools, funding and
financial tools, tools to promote environmental stewardship,
smart growth, civic participation and more. The Kit
is packaged as a step-by-step guide for planning and
implementing sustainable actions. Each of the five steps
results in a specific outcome.
Landview™
III: A Tool for Community Brownfields Projects
LandView™ III can provide brownfields project
managers, brownfields stakeholders, community activists,
and the general public with a variety of useful information
and tools to enhance brownfields projects. Statistics
and graphic representations of environmental, geographic,
and demographic information provide important insights
into selection of targeted brownfields properties and
community outreach activities. Brownfields project managers
can use the information contained in LandView III to
identify and characterize potential brownfields properties
in their cities, counties, or states based on information
provided from EPA data. Once the area of interest is
defined, LandView III can provide relevant demographic
and economic information, enabling users to develop
appropriate communications strategies for community
outreach efforts.
PACE
EH: Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental
Health
This is a guidance tool designed to assist communities
in the planning and implementation of a community-based
environmental health assessment. "The PACE EH
methodology consists of thirteen interrelated tasks,
including project planning, assessment team recruitment,
environmental health issue identification, indicator
development, and action plan development, that together
describe a flexible and collaborative assessment process."
 | These technical assistance resources for RC/EZ/ECs were
funded by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through a cooperative
agreement administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA), and prepared by the Public Health Foundation. Duplication
and adaptation, with credit, are encouraged. |  |
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Tips
for RC/EZ/ECs
- Know who's in charge of environmental health in
your community.
- RC/EZ/ECs can encourage businesses to take advantage
of the Environmental Cleanup Cost Deduction.
- Invest in market research to identify businesses
that can use a site. This increases your chances of
securing Federal money.
- Think about how your RC/EZ/EC can serve as a model
community. This can increase your chance of securing
Federal money.
- RC/EZ/ECs can set International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) benchmarks,
demonstrating the level of excellence businesses should
attain.
- RC/EZ/ECs can help assure environmental safe businesses
by making environmental health a priority in the health
improvement planning process.
- Use suggestions from the Department
of Energy's Clean Cities Program to help clean
up your RC/EZ/EC.
- Incorporate walk/bike paths and mass transit into
your health improvement plans.
- Work with your local board of health and local
municipalities to decrease consumer-generated waste
and increase recycling.
- Work to implement beautification programs such
as Adopt-A-Highway.
- Team with your local historical society when cleaning
lead-based paint out of old buildings. This is also
an opportunity to employ and educate youth in the
RC/EZ/EC.
- Work with local schools to identify and develop
vocational-technical programs or apprenticeship programs
to train youth on fixing up old home.
- Involve polluting industries in clean-up efforts.
- Mobilize partners for positive reinforcement as
well as pressure to clean the RC/EZ/EC up.
- Work with farmers to develop strategies for storing,
marketing and selling alcohol fuel in rural areas.
- Devise an incentive-based campaign encouraging
the use of alternative energy.
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Links
National
Institute for Environmental Health Sciences Community
Outreach
Provides links to information on Community Outreach
and Education programs sponsored by NIEHS. These programs
include Environmental Health Science Centers which,
as part of their mission, develop and maintain community
outreach and education activities. Activities include
a series of Town Meetings intended to bring together
community leaders and the lay public interested in environmental
health issues with health and environmental professionals,
state and local government officials, academicians,
and advocacy groups. Also includes links to information
on environmental health disparities, health and safety
issues and educational materials for teachers.
National Center
for Environmental Health
The NCEH mission is to provide national leadership,
through science and service, that promotes health and
quality of life by preventing or controlling those diseases,
birth defects, disabilities, or deaths that result from
interactions between people and their environment. This
site contains many useful links for communities looking
to address environmental health issues. Information
on Environmental
Health Services, which provides technical assistance
and scientific guidance to state, local, tribal, and
other government agencies engaged in environmental health
service programs, the CDC
Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, and
the CDC
Asthma Prevention Program.
Environmental Protection
Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency exists to protect
human health and to safeguard the natural environment.
Browse their website for information on a wide range
of environmental health issues, funding opportunities,
community programs, publications, useful links and tools
for communities. Offices in EPA that address environmental
health issues include, the Office
of Children's Health Protection, the Office
of Water, and the Office
of Air and Radiation. Other sections of interest
to communities working to address environmental health
issues include the SuperFund
Human Health Risk Assessments, the Integrated
Risk Information System, and the Community
Based Approaches site.
MedlinePlus,
Environmental Health
The National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlus site
has a section dedicated to news and information on specific
health conditions related to environmental factors.
Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry
ATSDR's mission is to prevent harm to human health and
diminished quality of life from exposure to hazardous
substances found at waste sites, in unplanned releases,
and in other sources of pollution present in the environment.
ATSDR identifies communities where people might be exposed
to hazardous substances in the environment. This site
has a community
section that allows users to search for information
about their communities and specific pollutants that
may present a health hazard.
Healthy People 2010
and Environmental Health
"This site is part of a national, public-private
effort to provide easy access to information useful
in the development of environmental health objectives
and for other environmental health planning projects.
It focuses on the six major topic areas within the Healthy
People 2010 Environmental Health Focus Area: Outdoor
Air Quality, Water Quality, Toxics and Wastes, Healthy
Homes and Healthy Communities, Infrastructure and Surveillance,
and Global Environmental Health."
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