Title: APHA 2003 ANNUAL MEETING-ENVIRONMENT SECTION PROGRAM
Author:
Section/SPIG: Environment
Issue Date:
Program:
Neal Rosenblatt and Robin Lee
Environment Section Program Planners
This year’s Environment Section APHA program reflects a range of topics including:
• The built environment and health
• Children’s environmental health and vulnerable populations
• Innovative topics in environmental health
• Public health collaborations and infrastructure
• Public health nursing in environmental health
• Public health and policy
• Social determinants of health
• Spotlight on regional environmental health issues indigenous to the San Francisco,
Metropolitan area
• Terrorism
• Environmental toxics
More than 60 scientific and poster sessions will be presented, including a number of co-sponsored sessions partnering with Community Health, Community Health Planning & Policy Development, Epidemiology, Food & Nutrition, Gerontological Health, Occupational Health & Safety, Maternal & Child Health, Mental Health, Public Health Nursing, Public Health Student Caucus and Vietnam Caucus. Our panelists represent a wide range of organizations and government agencies from the United States and abroad. And don’t forget to include the Homer N. Calver lecture/luncheon in your APHA Personal Scheduler scheduled for Monday, Nov. 17 at 12:30 p.m. The winner of the Calver award is mentioned in the above “Message from the Chair” article. Other events include the launching of the Built Environment Institute – a series of sessions identifying approaches for building sustainable environments that actively improve human health, a Built Environment & Health Field Trip on Sunday, November 16 at 2:00 – 5:30 p.m., a Student Achievement Award poster session on Monday, Nov. 17 at 8:30 a.m., and the Environment Section Social Hour on Monday, Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m. All Environment Section scientific, roundtable and poster sessions will be presented in the Moscone Convention Center.
The online program is available at <http://apha.confex.com/apha/131am/techprogram/program_312.htm>
As program chairs, we want to thank so many of you for all your contributions, ideas, and advice over the past several months as the program planning process has unfolded and continues to roll along. We would especially like to thank our Track Teams and Session Organizers – Brenda Afzal, Wendy Blumenthal, Laureen Burton, Andrew Dannenberg, Allen Dearry, Kevin Delaney, Stefanie DeOLLoqui, Rebecca Head, Polly Hoppin, Paul Locke, Russ Lopez, Rebecca Love, Susan West Marmagas, Leyla Erk McCurdy, Kevin McNally, Daniela Quilliam, and Beth Resnick. Without your tireless support and leadership, none of this would have been possible to the extent we were able to accomplish. The depth and strength of our program this year speaks volumes for your efforts. Thank you!
See you in San Francisco Nov. 15-19!
Selected Sessions:
• The Built Environment Institute – Health by Design: Identifying approaches for building sustainable environments that actively improve human health.
In 2003, the Environment Section continues the Built Environment Institute and its associated programs. At the Annual Meeting sessions, participants will discuss issues about the built environment and its impact on the public’s health – biologically, psychologically, and socially. The Institute’s overall goal is to identify what combinations of planning, design, and lifestyle choices should be prescribed for healthy and sustainable living and more human-focused growth. Each year, the Built Environment Institute will offer several scientific sessions, and a best practices field trip. In 2004, focus groups will be initiated toward developing an urban health agenda and tool-set about the impact of the built environment on the public’s health.
The core Institute objectives are to identify mechanisms by which the built environment adversely impacts health and appropriate interventions that can reduce or eliminate harmful health effects. The Environment Section’s Built Environment Institute will also offer an annual Health by Design & Stewardship Award for the best planning and design proposals that depict potential healthy community designs. Individual researchers and whole communities will be applauded for their development and implementation of measures, tools-sets, design plans and quality of life indicators that span health and environmental quality and that integrate these into generative land use plans, building designs, and policy processes. Future Institute work will focus on creating national competency guidelines for public health education to address built environment issues.
This year’s Built Environment Institute’s sessions identify approaches for building sustainable environments that actively improve human health including:
Health by Design: A Public Health Framework
4128.0 - SCI: Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003: 12:30-2:00 p.m.
Diagnosis and Treatment: Measuring and modeling the impact of the built environment on the public’s health
4194.0 - SCI: Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003: 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Making it Possible at the Community Level – Identifying successes and challenges toward healthy community design and sustainable growth from multiple perspectives – Policy, Research, Development, and Economics.
4258.0 - SCI: Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003: 4:30-6:00 p.m.
Characterizing the Impact of the Indoor Built Environment on Human Health.
3345.1 - SCI: Monday, Nov. 17, 2003: 4:30-6:00 p.m.
Interactive Roundtable Discussion – The Impact of the Built Environment on the Public's Health: Selected issues
3272.0 - RT-SCI: Monday, Nov. 17, 2003: 2:30-4:00 p.m.
The Institute’s Built Environment & Health field trip is scheduled for Sunday, November 16 at 2:00 until 5:30 p.m. We will tour at-risk communities and see examples of healthy buildings and healthy community development in and around the San Francisco Metropolitan area.
• Abstract: Infrastructure Development: Strategies for Incorporating Environmental Health into Health Care
Primary health care providers are not well prepared to diagnose, treat and prevent health effects due to environmental exposures. At a national forum held in Washington DC many leaders in medicine, nursing, and environmental health identified strategies and specific action items for integrating environmental health into primary health care education and practice. This session will highlight these strategies and action items, and describe specific initiatives aiming to integrate environmental health throughout various stages of education and clinical practice for health care providers.
Moderator: Allen Dearry, PhD
Presenters: Lillian Mood RN; Leyla Erk McCurdy, M Phil; Patricia Butterfield PhD, RN; Mark Robson PhD, MPH; Jerome Paulson MD
• Abstract (Plenary): Innovative Health Systems: Performing in Times of Challenge and Change
Tuesday, November 18th, 10:30 a.m.-noon
Health systems at the local, state, and federal level continue to face declining resources accompanied by significantly increased demands for the capacity to provide a range of prevention and response activities. This session acknowledges the challenges, and provides inspiring examples of public health leaders and agencies at all levels that are performing with excellence during these times of change through innovation and collaboration.
Moderator: Sarah Kotchian, PhD
Speakers: Kelly Taylor, IHS; Patricia Elliott, ASTHO; Tyler Norris, Community Initiatives; Jonathan Fielding, County of Los Angeles Public Health