Title: Update on Council Resolutions
Author:
Section/SPIG: Epidemiology
Issue Date:
The governing counselors for the section reviewed the resolutions that were submitted for the 2004 Annual Meeting. The resolutions covered diverse subjects and were divided into four groups: Group A-Health Disparities; Group B-Environmental and Occupational Health; Group C-Access to Health Care; Group D-Public Health Science and Infrastructure.
Group A, which was reviewed by Sonja Hutchins and Melinda Pettigrew, contained two resolutions addressing the reduction of health disparities with emphasis on prevention and environmental accessibility. Another resolution in this group concerned the government proposal to have health care providers in emergency department settings to report undocumented immigrants to the authorities.
Group B included a resolution that addressed the problem of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) as a fire retardant. The increased use of PBDE in this manner has increased the level found in the environment. The resolution called for the need to reduce the use of the chemical and to try to find alternative means to achieve the same fire retardant activity.
Group C was reviewed by Jim Gaudino and Karin Rosenblatt. Two of the resolutions in this group addressed concerns related to health education in the schools. One addressed the need for school health programs and the other specifically was concerned with a comprehensive sex education program. There was also a resolution in this group proposing to support the licensure of naturopaths to the physician level of health care provider.
Group D was reviewed by Scott Kellerman and Christine Arcari. This group contained two resolutions examining the problems of providing healthy food at the APHA meeting and nutritional labeling for food at fast food chain restaurants. Another resolution in this group proposed to work to eliminate the use of antibiotics in animal feeds to address the increasing problem of antibiotic resistance.
The comments from the discussions were forwarded to APHA. On April 26-27, 2004, the APHA Science Board met. Stan Weiss, our section chair-elect, is a new member of the Science Board, and the comments from our section were an integral part of the deliberative process of assessing the adequacy of the data and sources supporting the resolutions. On April 27-28, the APHA Joint Policy Committee (JPC) met to consider the recommendations of the Science Board as well as the relationships to past APHA policies. The recommendations from this policy review process will be provided to the authors of the resolutions to address problems and concerns. The resolutions will be reviewed in open meetings at the Annual Meeting, which will likely be held on Sunday, Nov. 7, from 3 p.m. - 5 p.m., and then subsequently voted on by the Governing Counsel. We would like to thank everyone for the time and effort in this important part of the APHA’s policy development.
--Submitted by: Karin Rosenblatt, Stan Weiss, and Susan Farner