Environment
Section Newsletter
Spring 2006

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I. Note from Environment Section Communications Chair/E-News Editors

Timelines for final e-newsletter in 2006 (fall edition):

Please send ideas for contributions, for the subsections below or other ones we are happy to create, by the appropriate deadlines for upcoming issues in 2006 of the APHA Environment Section e-newsletter to derek.g.shendell.96@alum.dartmouth.org (forwards to home and work computers) for Derek and Andrea.Wismann@UCHSC.edu for Andrea Wismann, our new Secretary-elect.  

The submission deadlines will be publicized through the APHA monthly e-newsletters for the two months prior to deadline (for fall 2006, this would be August and September).  A final notice is then sent to the Section’s primary members about a week in advance of the deadline by APHA at our request.

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II. APHA Environment Section’s Membership Committee Report: Highlights of the Membership Survey

Did you attend the Environment Section business meeting in Philadelphia in December?  If you did not, you missed the results of one of the year-long efforts of the Membership Committee, namely the results of the Environment Section survey. Completed in late-October, 2005, the purpose of the survey was to gather information needed to continue to respond to the needs of the Section membership.  More than 200 people, or about 20 percent, of the Section's members responded.  Here are a few highlights from the survey:  Fifty-five percent of the respondents were members of the Environment Section two years or less.  Of the non-mutually exclusive reasons people joined:  90 percent joined to join other environmental professionals in promoting public health; 88 percent to establish professional contacts through networking opportunities; 86 percent to affiliate with a national organization; 83 percent to receive up-to-date information; 61 percent for continuing education; and 53 percent to engage in person leadership development.

The top four benefits/services offered by APHA were networking, advocacy, the American Journal of Public Health and The Nation's Health. With regard to the Environment Section, although 40 percent rated the Section's accomplishments within the last year good or better, 43 percent had no opinion of accomplishments, meaning that we need to do a better job of letting our Section members know what we are doing.  As a corollary to that, when asked what "would you like to see improved upon" in the Section, more than 70 percent of respondents cited a communication-related issue as a first choice.  These included: communication about environment/public health policies and issues; more communication between leadership and members; an updated Environment Section Web site; and communication about APHA policies and issues.  On the other end of the scale, recruitment gained the spot as the last thing members thought our Section needed to improve and mentoring and networking fell in the middle.   

Always on the look out for new blood for the section leadership, we asked the question, if you considered but decided not to run for a Section elected position, why? Almost half of the respondents (48 percent) wrote in that they had time commitments/constraints/limitations. Coming in number two, at 31 percent, were issues related to elected positions, some of which demonstrated a lack of knowledge about those positions, including: being too new; already involved; "term is too long;" not knowing the requirements; not knowing enough people to run for office; and "I don't like to do these things."  

The last question was really not a question, just a place for comments.  Members basically used this question as a forum for letting us know what additional activities they would like to see the Section involved in.  For example, there was a desire for the Section to be a serious research organization; plan/promote improvements in community water supplies/waste management facilities; and support education to reduce magico-religious mercury contamination of Latino/Caribbean homes.  In addition, members expressed a wide range of views, including: dues should be lower; the Section should provide more mentoring; establish a recruitment Web site for volunteers; have a monthly article in AJPH; have local meetings; share the membership list with organizations with common interests; have more involvement with public health agencies; have better communication about Section activities/APHA structure/advocacy.

Now that we know what you feel we should be working on, we shall establish a timeline for attending to some of these activities.  We welcome your participation to make these things happen.  Please contact us; we look forward to having you join us. 

Dorothy Stephens, Dorothy.Stephens@CMS.hhs.gov and/or Susan Lynn Stone, Stone.Susan@epamail.epa.gov

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III. APHA Environment Section “Student Corner” (1)

A.             2006 Student Co-Liaisons Introductions

Students can be the driving catalyst in public health progress, which is why our involvement in the APHA Environmental Section is so important. As co-liaisons to this section, we are very excited to be working with such a dedicated group of public health professionals.

Who are we?

My name is Rebecca Tave Gluskin and I am currently a prospective MSc candidate in Environmental Health at New York University. My research is in air pollution, with interests branching into policy.

My name is Taylor Anderson, and I am currently working towards a MPH in Health Education and Health Promotion at Portland State University. I plan to do PhD work in epidemiology, with the ultimate goal of research and teaching. I have a broad range of interests in public health, with environmental health being a main one.

To get a jump start this spring, we would like to hear from the APHA student community. Tell us why you are interested in environmental health, what you would like to gain from this group and what you would like to contribute. For example, do you want networking opportunities (at Annual Meeting and during other times), ways to get involved with policy, updates on research, award opportunities, etc.? We hope to make this a beneficial resource for the APHA Environmental Section student community.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Rebecca Tave Gluskin                
Co-Liaison Environmental Section APHA       
Prospective MSc Environmental Health            
New York University                                          
Rtg230@nyu.edu       
                                          
Taylor Anderson
Co-Liaison Environmental Section APHA
Prospective MPH Health Education/Health Promotion
Portland State University
taylor_brooke@msn.com

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III. APHA Environment Section “Student Corner” (2)

B.

We have initiated the “Student Corner” portion of our seasonal newsletter for use by and the benefit of our student members.  We encourage student members to send text by the appropriate deadlines for upcoming issues of the APHA Environment Section e-newsletter to derek.g.shendell.96@alum.dartmouth.org and Andrea.Wismann@UCHSC.edu.  We encourage short update reports from our section’s Student Involvement Committee and news pertaining to APHA’s Student Assembly of interest to our section membership. 

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IV. APHA 2006 Annual Meeting, Boston, Nov. 5-8, 2006 (1)

A.

Please go to http://www.apha.org/meetings for more information and specific deadlines by Section; each edition of the American Journal of Public Health and The Nation’s Health newspaper now have overall program information, registration forms, etc.

[EDITOR NOTE: Aditi Vaidya is our senior program planner for 2006, joined by August Martin, our new junior program planner.]

Submitted by: 2005 Environment Section Program Planners,

Aditi Vaidya (aditi_v1@yahoo.com)

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IV APHA 2006 Annual Meeting, Boston, Nov. 5-8, 2006 (2)

APHA 2006 Update: Opening and Closing Session Speakers Announced

Appropriate for this year's theme “Public Health and Human Rights,” Paul E. Farmer, MD, PhD, a founding director of Partners In Health and a world-renowned authority on AIDS and tuberculosis, and Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH, president and CEO of CARE USA, will speak in the Opening General Session, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2006.

The Closing General Session on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006, will focus on increasing access to health care and examine initiatives at the state and federal level that incorporate individual and employer mandates. Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland Citizen’s Health Initiative, a coalition of organizations seeking to insure quality affordable health care, and John E. McDonough, executive director of Health Care for All, Massachusetts’ leading consumer health advocacy organization, will be the speakers. APHA Headquarters, via Editors derek.g.shendell.96@alum.dartmouth.org

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IV. APHA 2006 Annual Meeting, Boston, Nov. 5-8, 2006(3)

C.

APHA 2006 Update: Notification of Abstract Status by June 1

Notification of abstract status will be sent to abstract submitters via e-mail by June 1.

If your e-mail address has changed or will change by this date, contact Conference Exchange at (401) 334-0220.

If you do not receive your e-mail by June 1, please check your e-mail spam folders or log on to: http://apha.confex.com/apha/134am/abstractstatus.cgi to check abstract status.

Submitted by: APHA Headquarters, via Derek Shendell

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IV. APHA 2006 Annual Meeting, Boston, Nov. 5-8, 2006 (4)

D. Please Register to Vote During APHA 2006 via Absentee Ballot!

This year's Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006, will happen during the APHA Annual Meeting in Boston.  Make your voice heard in the ballot box by registering to vote and requesting an absentee ballot before your state deadline!  Click here for more information: https://ssl.capwiz.com/apha/e4/.

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IX. Inter-Section and Policy Updates (1)

A.

Report from Environmental Health and Public Health Nursing Task Force

The task force is a joint collaboration between the Environment Section and the Public Health Nursing Section. Throughout 2005, with the support of a mini-grant from Nurses Work Group of Health Care Without Harm, the taskforce developed environmental health "Principles and Recommendations," which were approved in December by the PHN Section and endorsed by the Quad Council of PHN Organizations (ACHNE, ASTDN, ANA).   The "Principles and Recommendations" document will be shared with the Environment Section for the section's endorsement. Work for the taskforce in 2006 is being supported by another HCWH mini-grant to prepare a "Greenprint for Action," which will serve to raise awareness and foster adoption of the environmental health principles and recommendations for environmental health practice, education, research, and advocacy.

For more information on the taskforce, to receive our "Principles and Recommendations" and/or "Greenprint for Action," or to join the efforts, please contact the Co-Chairs listed below.

Rita Lourie (PHN), Robyn Gilden (ENV)

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IX. Inter-Section and Policy Updates (2)

B.

Please read APHA’s The Nation’s Health for policy updates, including on outdoor air pollution standards and source emissions policy (May 2006) at http://www.apha.org/tnh/index.cfm?fa=ADetail&id=2698 .

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Note from Environment Section Communications Chair/e-News Editors

Timelines for final e-newsletter in 2006 (fall edition):

Please send ideas for contributions, for the subsections below or other ones we are happy to create, by the appropriate deadlines for upcoming issues in 2006 of the APHA Environment Section e-newsletter to derek.g.shendell.96@alum.dartmouth.org (forwards to home and work computers) for Derek and Andrea.Wismann@UCHSC.edu for Andrea Wismann, our new Secretary-elect.  

The submission deadlines will be publicized through the APHA monthly e-newsletters for the two months prior to deadline (for fall 2006, this would be August and September).  A final notice is then sent to the Section’s primary members about a week in advance of the deadline by APHA at our request.

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V. The National Council on Diversity in Environmental Health

The National Council on Diversity in Environmental Health (NCODE Health), still in its formative stage as a national organization, actually has three years of significant experience in diversity recruitment and retention. A collaborative effort between Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) brought together a truly diverse group of environmental health scientists representing multiple federal, state, and local government organizations, academia and industry, and formed the National Environmental Health Diversity Recruitment Task Force (NEHDRTF).  

The NEHDRTF’s mission was to develop and implement a diversity recruitment and retention model that could achieve racial and ethnic diversity among environmental health students and faculty, and eventually the environmental health workforce. The model was developed and piloted at Eastern Kentucky University from 2003 through 2006 with tremendous success.  

The model encompasses key factors, or “best practices,” that include:

•   Leadership/management commitment
•   Nexus concept (partnerships)
•   Broad organizational strategic planning for diversity
•   Program goals that include targeted recruitment populations
•   Program goals that in