Prevention Matters

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute, (EESI) held a Congressional briefing on May 24, 2010 that highlighted the important health choice Congress will need to consider as it debates a pending, multiyear reauthorization of Federal transportation spending. The briefing featured a presentation by Jonathan Patz, MD, MPH, professor and director of Global Environmental Health, University of Wisconsin, who spoke of the direct impact on public health that results from climate change; specifically the role that transportation policy plays in healthy/unhealthy air and lifestyles. While its well known that air pollution can cause respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, Patz told congressional staffers that poorly planned transportation policies have a morbidity and mortality rate significantly higher than the conventional associations with automobile and pedestrian accidents.

In addition to extensive health consequences resulting from air pollution, Patz argued that transportation decisions are significant factors contributing to the nation’s obesity epidemic due to community designs that foster inactivity and chronic disease. Chronic diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and cancer, are an inevitable result of a unhealthy lifestyle. Patz noted that nearly half of all car trips are less than two miles long, and a significant number could be reduced through investments and incentives in alternative transportation methods; especially investments such as mass transit, community design and other policies that reduce reliance on private automobiles and increase walking and other forms of physical activity. Whats the bottom line? While organizations like the American Public Health Association have persuasively argued that “climate change is a public health issue” Dr. Patz's presentation included a powerful image (see below) illustrating how simple policies can hinder or enhance a physically active lifestyle.

Dr. Jonathan Patz's complete presentation is available on the Environmental and Energy Study Institute website.

Amy Himmelstein
Policy and Program Intern
Partnership for Prevention

There is growing awareness that transportation systems and policies can impact our health and indeed the quality of life in communities across America. Congress is currently hard at work developing a multi-year transportation authorization that will have a profound impact on air quality, traffic safety, the availability of walkable communities and affordable mass transit…the challenge is for this impact to be a positive one.

In a thoughtfully written 11 page report (“CDC Recommendations for Improving Health through Transportation Policy”) the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers federal, state and local policymakers a valuable framework to consider that will foster consideration of transportation policies and investments that have the greatest “positive impact on health.” The CDC recommendations have been under development since 2007 and have been informed by the work of the US Department of Transportation and key public health organizations like the American Public Health Association and the Convergence Partnership. CDC calls for adoption of “a balanced portfolio of transportation choices that supports health and reduces health care costs.” The goals of a balanced portfolio are straightforward and should enjoy broad support inside and outside of government.

• Reduce injuries associated with motor vehicle crashes
• Encourage healthy community design
• Promote safe and convenient opportunities for physical activity by supporting active transportation infrastructure
• Reduce human exposure to air pollution and adverse health impacts associated with these pollutants
• Ensure that all people have access to safe, healthy, convenient, and affordable transportation

The challenge for those of us committed to prevention is convincing transportation advocates that healthy transportation is in everyone’s interest. We need adoption of complete streets policies, expanded support for safe routes to school, greater attention to community design that promotes health and safety, support of public transportation that improves access for all people and a commitment to reduce human exposure to transportation-related air pollution.

Partnership for Prevention is working to support these efforts by partnering with the Transportation for America, APHA and other public health and prevention leaders to educate policymakers about the extensive body of research that supports the CDC recommendations.

Ripley Forbes
Director, Government Affairs
Partnership for Prevention

Dr. Carmen Nevarez , vice president of the Public Health Institute and a member of Partnership for Prevention's Board of Directors, will become the 138th president of the American Public Health Association (APHA) at the organization's annual meeting in Philadelphia.

During her one-year term as president, Nevarez will serve as an "ambassador" for APHA, speaking at meetings and conferences around the country, and as a representative on various boards, committees or other initiatives outside of APHA. Founded in 1872, the 30,000-member APHA is the oldest, largest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world.