Collaborative on Health and the Environment

Environmental Influences on Neurodevelopment workshop materials available

1/19/12: CHE and the Autism Society recently co-sponsored three workshops featuring national experts from diverse sectors who highlighted the latest research on associations between environmental exposures and early neurodevelopment as well as the implications for prevention-based public health policy. These workshops were intended to catalyze cross-discipline discussions among leaders in environmental, experimental and epidemiologic fields as well as those involved in public policy and environmental health advocacy.

Speaker presentation slides are being added to the workshop's webpage and audio from the workshop is now available.
Visit the workshop webpage

New AARP blog on healthy aging and the environment

1/10/12: AARP has just launched a blog on Healthy Aging and the Environment, which can be found on the AARP website. This inaugural piece links to a number of resources that can help educate AARP's 35 million members on environmental influences on health including the report Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging (see CHE's Healthy Aging Initiative webpage).

You can help ensure this becomes a regular weekly AARP blog. Visit the site, post a comment to the blog, "like" it on Facebook, Twitter it, etc. to show widespread support for this pivotal new initiative by AARP. If this is successful and AARP continues to reach out to their members with critical information on environmental influences on healthy aging, then many more highly influential people will have the science they need to promote healthy environments across generations.

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

CHE regularly highlights the work of our Partners here in our Partner Spotlight.

Building for Health: A Talk with Richard Jackson, MD, MPH
Interview by Steve Heilig, MPH
January 2012

How does where we live impact our health? It’s a big and complex question, but Richard Jackson, MD, MPH is leading the way towards answers--and interventions.

Jackson is a longtime leading figure in public health. Trained in pediatrics at UCSF and public health at UC Berkeley, he is currently Professor and Chairman of Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA’s School of Public Health. Prior to that he has been California’s State Health Officer and Director of the CDC National Center for Environmental Health. He is a founding CHE partner who has participated in many of CHE's conference calls, meetings, and initiatives.

Over the past decade much of Jackson’s focus has been on the "built environment"—our homes, cities, streets, institutions—affect our health. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects and has written and spoken extensively in this arena. He has both recent books and a new television series titled “Designing Health Communities”, which premieres on PBS in February and is available on DVD. Episodes in the 4-part series include “Retrofitting Suburbia”, “Rebuilding Places of the Heart,” “Social Policy in Concrete,” and “Searching for Shangri-La.” Such titles might lead one to suspect Dr. Jackson is a man with his head in the clouds, but he remains a pragmatist who is able to retain lofty goals in terms of healthy futures.

28 Jan Nitrogen pollution an increasing problem globally. The invention of nitrogen-based fertilizer in 1909 helped fuel a global agricultural boom, and it?s been crucial in feeding a growing population ever since. But a growing number of scientists say that boon to our food supply has come at a big cost ? massive, nitrogen-based pollution. Public Radio International.

28 Jan California orders hike in number of super clean cars. California, long a national leader in cutting auto pollution, pushed the envelope further Friday as state regulators approved rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and put significantly more pollution-free vehicles on the road in coming years. Los Angeles Times.

28 Jan An exquisite Mexico beach, cursed by plastic. A little-developed segment of Mexico's Caribbean coast is a beachgoer's fantasy of unspoiled seaside splendor ? until you look down. For as far as the eye can see, the sand glitters with bits of bright color: fragments of trash, thousands and thousands of them, strung like a vast, foul necklace. Los Angeles Times.

28 Jan Accumulating 'microplastic' threat to shores. Microscopic plastic debris from washing clothes is accumulating in the marine environment and could be entering the food chain, a study has warned. Researchers traced the "microplastic" back to synthetic clothes, which released up to 1,900 tiny fibres per garment every time they were washed. BBC.

28 Jan Wood smoke adds billions to health bill, says report. The smoky haze from wood fires is Sydney's biggest source of air pollution in winter, and wood smoke will add $8 billion to the health budget by 2030, says an independent report commissioned by the state government and kept secret for six months. Port Stephens Examiner.

28 Jan Drive-by scanning: Officials expand use and dose of radiation for security screening. U.S. law enforcement agencies are exposing people to radiation in more settings and in increasing doses to screen for explosives, weapons and drugs. In addition to the controversial airport body scanners, now deployed for routine screening, various X-ray devices have proliferated at the border, in prisons and on the streets of New York. ProPublica.

More news...