Integrated Assessment of Environment and Health: America’s Children and the Environment

Abstract

The significance of the environment for health is increasingly being recognized. There is a need for systematic approaches to assessment of environmental factors most relevant to health, health outcomes most influenced by the environment, and the relationships between them, as well as for approaches to representing the results of such assessments in policy deliberations. As a step in the development of such methods, we used findings and data from the environmental protection and public health sectors to develop a set of measures representing topics relevant to children’s environmental health. We used a definition of the environment that emphasized contaminants and a process that involved both analytic and deliberative elements. The steps in this process were to a) develop a conceptual framework to depict relationships between environment and health with relevant types of data and information, b) select topic areas of significance for children, c) identify best available data sources and devise measures, d) assess possible surrogate data sources and measures when needed, e) design and implement metrics for computation of measures using specified data elements, f) select graphical representations of measures, g) identify related measures, and h) identify data gaps. Representatives of policy and stakeholder audiences participated in this process. The measures are presented in three groups that reflect contaminants in the environment, contaminants in human tissues, and diseases and disorders. The measures present scientifically based representations of data understandable to stakeholders and policy makers that integrate key information from the health and environment sectors in a consistent format.

Bridging conceptual “silos”: bringing together health promotion and sustainability governance for practitioners at the landscape scale

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Strategies for improving human health in contaminated situations: a review of past, present and possible future approaches

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Perceptions and Evaluation of an Urban Environment for Pedestrian Friendliness: A Case Study

“…Increasing rates of obesity and other health-related risks concern both environmental and health experts because of the environmental factors that affect human health (Kyle, et al, 2006;Hoehner, Ivy, Ramirez, Handy, & Brownson, 2007;Forsyth, et al, 2008). Rainham and McDowell (2005) discovered that at least 23% of global health issues are attributed to environmental factors and are preventable; therefore, addressing environmental factors that affect human health is a top priority for current and future populations in the United States (Hoehner, et al, 2007).…”

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“…There are rising concerns over issues regarding the well-being of society from both the environmental and public health sectors (Kyle, Woodruff, & Axelrad, 2006).…”