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    • Huge rise in birth defects in Falluja.
      Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.
    • China faces reckoning over lead production.
      Since late summer, there has been a spate of lead poisoning cases in Hunan, Henan, Yunnan and Shanxi provinces. More than 3,200 cases have been confirmed, most of them in children. Now, thousands of Chinese are trying to flee a landscape poisoned by decades of lead manufacturing.
    • 'Catastrophic' e-waste fuels global toxic dump.
      A "catastrophic accumulation" of millions of tonnes of "e-waste" from computers, cellphones and television sets is fuelling a global pile of hazardous waste, an international body warned Friday.
    • Earth, wind or fire.
      Britain's power is now relatively clean. Per head, Britons produce half the CO2 emissions of Australians. Could Australia achieve the same? Could we simply shut down coal-fired power generation and replace it with something else?
    • Boeing suit seeks to set aside higher standard.
      The Boeing Co. filed suit Friday to scuttle a state law requiring the highest cleanup standards at one of the nation's most polluted sites. It contends that only the federal government, not the state of California, has the authority to oversee cleanup at nuclear energy sites.
    • CO2 and carbon sinks.
      Carbon dioxide is the primary perpetrator of climate change, and most efforts to slow global warming go into preventing CO2 production and aiding CO2 absorption. But a new study suggests that the more CO2 we make, the more nature absorbs. So do we really need all those rainforests?
    • Big profit from nature protection.
      Money invested in protecting nature can bring huge financial returns, according to a major investigation into the costs and benefits of the natural world.
    • Brookfield natives expose bottled water industry.
      By 2030, two-thirds of the world's citizens will not have access to clean drinking water, according to the United Nations. Thirty-five states in the U.S. are experiencing drought now. One of the causes of the impending water crisis is something millions of Americans use every day -- bottled water.
    • Blizzard renews storm over China making snow.
      Heavy snowfall in northern China is testing the country's disaster preparedness and prompting fresh questions about Beijing's efforts to alter its weather. China's water supply relative to its 1.3 billion-person population is roughly a fourth the world's average, and the shortage is worse in the north.
    • Restoring China's disappearing wetlands.
      The Sanjiang Plain Wetlands, China's largest freshwater wetlands, are disappearing at a frightening speed after decades of agricultural conversion. Scientists link increased droughts, floods and sandstorms afflicting northern China in recent years to the shrinking wetlands.
    • Arab experts predict Mideast water wars.
      There is a widely held fear in the Middle East that global warming, dwindling water resources and burgeoning populations will trigger wars over water in the not-too-distant future.
    • Plastic roads offer greener way to travel in India.
      For two of India’s biggest problems, battered roads and overflowing landfills, Ahmed Khan has a single solution: streets made with recycled plastic.
    • Turtle tours, and turtles, are casualties of climate change in Costa Rica.
      Warmer temperatures and rising seas that scientists link to global warming have vastly diminished the turtle population that has dwelt in the Pacific for 150 million years.
    • Navy’s Vieques training may be tied to health risks.
      The federal agency that assesses health hazards at sites designated for Superfund environmental cleanups said it had reversed its conclusion that contamination posed no risks to residents in Puerto Rico.
    • GE: Magazine wrong, PCB cleanup working.
      General Electric Co. hit back at a Harper's Magazine article critical of its handling of the Hudson River dredging project, with a point-by-point disputation of the story.
    • Town that lost its water.
      Twenty years ago, Elmira discovered that industrial chemicals from the Uniroyal factory had poisoned the town’s water supply. A groundwater cleanup is planned to conclude in 2028 but now, halfway through the process, fresh debate has erupted over whether it is working.
    • Chicago canal to be poisoned to stop Asian carp.
      A $1.5 million project's goal is to temporarily kill a 6-mile stretch of river with poison so a new electric fish barrier can be briefly shut down for maintenance. It is a drastic attempt to keep Asian carp from invading Lake Michigan.
    • Obama's pesticide-pushing nominee.
      The administration has nominated a senior executive from the pesticide lobby—which slammed Michelle Obama's organic garden—to be chief agricultural negotiator for the office of the US Trade Representative. If confirmed, he will be responsible for negotiating international agreements governing the use of pesticides.
    • If EPA's Air chief loves a brawl, she's come to the right place .
      U.S. EPA air chief Gina McCarthy has a thick Boston accent, a shock of cropped white hair and a penchant for a good fight. As the nation's top air regulator she may be in the center of a political free-for-all over climate regulation and other air pollution policies.
    • Industry groups want to restart legal battle over smog standard.
      Industry groups and the state of Mississippi are asking a federal appeals court to move forward on legal proceedings over national smog limits, despite U.S. EPA's plans to reconsider the George W. Bush administration's controversial standard.
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Healthy People 2020 initiative – providing input

Posted on Monday, 28 April 2008 by environmentalhealthtoday
Healthy people environmental health education

The United States Healthy People 2020 initiative, led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is formally underway. It is a science-based process for promoting health and preventing disease. As with the Healthy People 2010 initiative, the intent is to develop national health objectives for the next decade. During 2008, the HHS wishes to develop a vision, mission and overarching goals. The development of specific Healthy People 2020 objectives will be in done in 2009. Environmental health remains an important part of this initiative.

Public Comment is invited in helping frame the vision, mission and overarching goals. The 2008 annual meeting of the American Public Health Association will also devote a session to Healthy People 2020. And, regional meetings, open to interested members of the public, have been scheduled in the United States.

The Healthy People 2020 initiative will build from it’s foundation in the Healthy People 2010 process. The Healthy People 2010 initiative was intended to achieve two primary goals:

  • Increase quality and years of healthy life: this first goal was intended to help individuals (of all ages) to have an increased life expectancy and to improve the quality of that life.
  • Eliminate health disparities: this second goal was to eliminate a variety of health disparities among all populations groups.

The goals and objectives are further delineated as they relate to specific health indicators, such as cancer, food safety, disabilities, among others.

Environmental health goals

The midcourse review of the environmental health objectives for the Healthy People 2010 initiative provides an excellent grounding in both national and global environmental health issues. The co-lead agencies for environmental health include the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health.

It is valuable to examine the Healthy People 2010 initiative to help set objectives for the next decade beginning in 2010. One can examine and reflect upon goals met, unmet, or partially met. Generally, progress towards achieving the environmental health goals, is tracked according to one of the following five categories:

  • Objective that met or exceeded their targets.
  • Objectives that moved toward their targets.
  • Objectives that demonstrated no change.
  • Objectives that moved away from their targets.
  • Objectives that could not be assessed.

Specific comments and input regarding the environmental health objectives and goals (for the coming decade beginning in 2010), however, will be sought in 2009.

Readers are encouraged to provide input this year in setting an overall vision, mission, and the overarching goals.

Offer your comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Then, in 2009, offer comments on specific objectives and goals. Further discussion and postings will be offered as work proceeds towards developing specific goals and objectives. Alternatively, leave replies to this posting – your hosts will use your input to help frame a possible collective response to the setting of a vision, mission, and overarching goals that would have a bearing on environmental health.

– EnvironmentalHealthToday

Photo courtesy of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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