Public Health Education and Health Promotion
Section Newsletter
Winter 2006

Chair's Corner

Happy new year!  This year, we have the unique experience of starting off both the new APHA year and the new calendar year at nearly the same time.  By now, all of us are returning to high gear up after the holidays at home and at work, and APHA is no exception.  Although we got off to a late start, the business of the Section is already hopping.  The Call for Abstracts is open for the 2006 Annual Meeting, the deadline for Awards and the Materials Contest is fast approaching, and Resolutions are nearly due. 

I want to take the opportunity to introduce you to our 2005-6 PHEHP Leadership.  If you are looking for a chance to get more involved, now is the time to contact one or more of these folks.  I want especially to take the opportunity to thank each of every one of our Section Leaders for the work they are already doing and will continue to do throughout the year.  It is only because of the dedication of so many of our members that our Section is as active and successful as it is.

Special thanks and congratulations to Jennifer Cremeens, who has taken on the newly created role of PHEHP Student Liaison.  In addition to helping with the Program Committee, Jennifer will be brining a student perspective to our Section's work and keeping us in touch with the work of the Student Assembly.  It is my hope that we can use this coming year to grow our relationships with students who have an interest in PHEHP so that we can become their Section home as they move into new roles in the Association.

Thanks also to the leaders of our Section's Workgroups:

PHEHP members are active within the Section, but also within the larger Association.  As APHA's largest section, PHEHP has influence throughout the Association's governance. Several of our members hold appointments on APHA-wide committees, and we especially honor President Pat Mail in the busy year ahead.  We thank all of these members for their efforts at both keeping PHEHP informed and for keeping PHEHP concerns on the table in the larger association.

Finally, I want to recognize our elected Section Council and Governing Council leaders for the work they will be doing throughout this year.

I look forward to working with Donna Pearson-Beal (PHEHP Secretary), the PHEHP Leadership, and all of our members in the coming year.  With your help, we will continue to grow PHEHP as a Section and an active part of the larger Association.

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2006 Call for Abstracts

The American Public Health Association's CALL FOR ABSTRACTS for the 134th Annual Meeting to be held in Boston on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006 -- Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006 is now open for submissions.

Abstracts will be accepted through the APHA Web site, http://apha.org/meetings

HIGXYZ14HIGZYX You do not have to be a member of the Association to submit an abstract. However, if your abstract is accepted you must become an Individual member and register for the meeting.

Submitters will be notified via email on or about June 1, 2006 whether their abstract was selected.

PHEHP invites papers, posters and sessions that address current and relevant health education themes, along with this year’s APHA theme, “Public Health and Human Rights." Of particular interest are papers related to the following:

• Community Mobilization
• Diversity, Disparity and Inclusivity
• Environmental Health
• Ethical Issues
• Health Communication and/or Health Risk Communication
• Health Education/Health Education Programming
• Human Rights Issues
• Innovative Practices
• Public Health Infrastructure
• Public Health Policy and Advocacy
• Special Focus Populations (minorities and emerging majorities, sexual orientation issues, age-group issues, etc.)
• Technology in Public Health
• Topical Issues: e.g., tobacco, alcohol, depression, HIV/AIDS, violence, nutrition, injury prevention, and physical activity
• Worksite Health Promotion

Individual abstract submissions must include at least two learning objectives. Learning objectives are needed as a standing APHA requirement and consideration for CHES contact hours. Incomplete abstracts cannot be reviewed.

Authors who wish to have multiple abstracts considered as one session MUST take the following steps:

1. submit each abstract individually through the online system,
2. note the assigned abstract number for each paper,
3. send an e-mail to healthprof@insightbb.com with the title of your session, numbers for each of the abstracts and any other relevant information.

Without these steps, all abstracts will be considered as individual submissions. Please note that in order to provide as full a program as possible, PHEHP does NOT generally accept full sessions related to a single project.

Program Planner Contact Information:

Stuart Usdan, PhD
Department of Health Sciences
University of Alabama
Box 870311
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0311
Phone: 205-348-8373
susdan@ches.ua.edu

And

Regina A. Galer-Unti, PhD, CHES
Independent Consultant
P.O. Box 125 Urbana, IL 61801
Phone: 217.367.9468
healthprof@insightbb.com

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Nominations now being accepted

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Students' Corner

APHA Working Group on Trade & Health

The multi-section APHA Working Group on Trade and Health had a high profile at the Philadelphia Annual Meeting in December 2005 and several dozen more APHA members have signed up with the ad-hoc formation to broaden its work and impact. 

The Working Group, formed at the November 2004 Washington, D.C. Annual Meeting, held an open business meeting, a four-section scientific session and a conference-wide special session on the public impact of international trade agreements.  More than 70 APHA members signed up to join the Working Group’s efforts to further organize APHA members and to play an ever-expanding role as health professionals in legislative debates and public education campaigns. 

More than 1,000 meeting participants attended the Tuesday morning “special session,” one of only four sessions at that time period, which was devoted to the impact of trade and trade agreements on public health globally.  Two members of the Working Group – Ellen Shaffer of the Medical Care Section and Marty Makinen of the International Health Section – spoke with a third speaker, Nils Daulaire.  The special session reflected the debate within and outside of APHA about whether “free trade,” and the international agreements that set its rules, advance or are a threat to public health.

Makinen and Daulaire were generally in favor of corporate-led globalization and free trade agreements as a means for generating wealth in poor countries, while Shaffer was highly critical of the adverse impact on key public health parameters – access to care and medicines, enforcement of health-protective regulations, and national sovereignty to establish laws and policies to protect public health.  Over the last decade, the APHA has passed several policy positions on trade that express the association’s deep concerns about the detrimental impact of trade pacts on public health around the world. 

At the separate scientific session on trade, speakers from four APHA sections – Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs, Environment, Medical Care and Occupational Health and Safety – presented case studies of how trade agreements have adversely affected public health.  Garrett Brown represented the OHS Section, which also sponsored the session, and Brown spoke about how the North American Free Trade Agreement has completely failed to protect workplace health in Mexico, Canada or the United States. 

Plans for 2006 were discussed at the Working Group business meeting, including further outreach within APHA to involve more sections, state affiliates and individual members.  At present seven sections and three state affiliates are represented in the Working Group, which should expand as the 70 APHA members who signed up for more information become integrated Working Group activities.  The planned activities include an APHA website to display key information and conference presentations, section newsletter articles and business meeting presentations, presentations at state affiliate meetings, and additional articles in the association’s journal and newspaper.

In addition, the Working Group plans to channel members’ interest and time into the ongoing public education and legislative lobbying campaigns around specific trade agreements and trade impacts in general.  APHA is already working to include public health professionals in the critical “advisory committees” to the U.S. government’s trade negotiating arm.  Currently the more than 20 advisory committees are filled with corporate lobbyists while public health is represented by no more than three professionals among the dozens of