Silent Spring

In light of the recent 50th anniversary of Silent Spring, we decided to share our thoughts about one of the most well-known environmental books which many people believe sparked the environmental movement.

Silent Spring, written by scientist Rachel Carson, it documents the harm caused to birds and other animals by pesticide use. This book had a lot of political impact, leading to the banning of certain pesticides. It showed evidence that what we do to the environment can have much broader and serious consequences. Although environmental public health is not a big interest of ours, we thought it would be worth while to read such an important piece of literature. Maybe it was because we had such high expectations of the book going in, or maybe it was just not our style, whatever the case we found the book disappointing. Each chapter simply described another anecdotal incident, of pesticides harming some animal in some part of the country, it just got really boring. Do not get us wrong, we believe this is an important piece of literature in our history, we just get more out of knowing the story behind the book itself and the impact it has had worldwide. Our official recommendation is LEAVE and instead READ about the impact the book has had since its publication.

Food Deserts

The increase in fast food and convenience stores and simultaneous decrease in supermarkets and grocery stores decreases access to healthy foods. This phenomenon,   called a food desert, usually occurs in low-income neighborhoods, making where you live determinant of what kinds of foods are easily available. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) a food desert is a low-income area that has limited access to a grocery store or supermarket. They occur in either rural or urban environments. To see if you live in a food desert check out the Food Desert Locator. This interactive map has information on the continental 48 states about their access to healthy food. Using tools like the Food Desert Locator can help us find areas of concern and where we can come together to help solve this issue.

Image courtesy of thedasslereffect.wordpress.com

In order to combat this issue a two-pronged attack is necessary, increasing access to grocery stores while limiting fast food and convenience stores. There are many ways to encourage access to healthy food sources such as business incubators and local farmers markets. Community-wide efforts are now underway in Philadelphia and Detroit, two of the nation’s poorest cities (and largest food deserts). In many communities corner stores are a main source of food for people. Healthy corner stores initiatives are ways to include fresh produce in smaller convenience stores. These efforts make sure it is easy and affordable for everyone in a community to have access to healthy foods. The other approach is through fast food zoning which can limit the number of joints in a given area or ban them altogether. To fix the problem of food deserts communities must work together to come up with creative solutions that work for them.

Working to end food deserts is just one of the many steps needed to combat the obesity epidemic in america. Public awareness about eating healthy and making healthy foods affordable compared to convenience and fast foods are also needed. Making sure everyone has access to healthy food is an important step in the process, that involves the community, urban planners, public health, businesses, and producers.

Public Health and Urban Sprawl

In addition to our weekly posts we will also occasionally submit book reviews that deal with our subject matter. The purpose of these reviews is simply to share with you what we have read and give recommendations to guide your own reading choices. Instead of giving a traditional rating (4 stars out of 5) we’ll give you one of three recommendations: “Buy”, “Read”, or “Leave.” For us book reviews have been helpful for us to decide what books we want to read next and hopefully we can do that for you. Please note that these reviews are only our opinion and we do not benefit in any way from them or any purchase of a book. Our first book review is Urban Sprawl and Public Health, an obvious place for us to start.

Public Health and Urban Sprawl:
Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities
By: Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank, and Dr. Richard J. Jackson

Public Health and Urban Sprawl: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities, the title says it all. This book is a must read for anyone in public health or urban planning and is a good read for everyone else. Public health officials want to create healthy communities and this book shows that collaboration with Urban Planning can do this. The book starts out by explaining what urban sprawl is, how, and why it started. It then goes into the effects that urban sprawl has on our communities and how that in turn has affected our health and well-being. It is relatively easy to read and understand and is full of research and studies on each topic making the authors’ arguments evidence based. The book covers a variety of topics including: air quality, physical activity, water quality and more. The book is a little lengthy but only because it covers so many diverse and important topics. The authors’ conclude the book by suggesting answers to the problem of urban sprawl. This book is full of research and studies and serves as a good reference to have on hand. Our official recommendation is BUY.

The Choice to be Healthy

The problem is choice. More specifically, a lack of choice. People do not choose unhealthiness, their environment does not offer them a better alternative. Poor transportation and land use practices leads to vehicle dependency, pedestrian unfriendly streets, a lack of public parks, and improper food choices.

Planners and city government must decide the best uses for land. With limited budgets, this often means overlooking nontaxable parks and nature trails for revenue generating chain stores and private transportation. However, their nearsighted, money driven approach fails to account for the health and economic value to providing residents with better options. These poor planning practices generally lead to unhealthy, unsafe, and unsightly places such as the one seen below, a common site all across America.

Typical vehicle-oriented city, USA
Photo curtsey of http://www.pedbikeimages.org / Dan Burden

Towns and neighborhoods that do not offer their residents better choices can have implications on public health. Pedestrian friendly streets and safe outdoor public recreation have many benefits for a community including increased social capital and access to free and convenient physical activity. Without the options to safely walk, bike, and use public transit, communities will become vehicle dependent, promoting a lazy lifestyle and dependence on drive-in food options which are rarely healthy.

As with outdoor recreation the same is true for grocery stores, they offer healthy options (preferable local) for the community, but simply having these services is not enough. Grocery stores are only fully beneficially when they accessible which means they are well-connected through all modes of transit. Planners must provide access to parks and services for everyone in the community, no matter their location or age.

The goal is to make the healthy choice the easy choice. To give all citizens access to public services and local businesses regardless of their economic or social background. Urban planners and government officials need to develop for the good of the people, not just to make a quick buck.

Walkable neighborhood in Portland, Oregon
Photo curtsey of http://www.pedbikeimages.org / Andy Hamilton

Public Health + Urban Planning

The main focus of this blog is to explore the connection between public health and urban planning. These two diverse fields have a direct relationship with one another, which is often overlooked. Historically these two disciplines have operated independently, without collaboration. We believe that we can form healthier, more fulfilling future for our communities through the integration and application of these two fields. The following chart shows the relationship between public health and urban planning and how they have a continual direct effect on one another.

Urban planning is the process that regulates development in neighborhoods, cities, and regions. Planners deal with all the components that make up a metro region; transportation systems, the economy, natural resources, urban design, and physical facilities. These all come together to define our cities.

Our built environment influences behavior and choices of people based on what is available and convenient. In turn this can shape our lifestyles and health outcomes.

Public health is the well-being of society. It creates community-based strategies to prevent disease and promote health. It studies how the environment and our behavior impacts our livelihood and health. Our behaviors are also influenced by our environment.

Studying the trends of public health in cities helps find the causes of disease. Applying this knowledge helps create new community policies, building codes, and changes the practice of urban planning.

This connection is gaining traction and now many universities are beginning see the value of offering dual degrees in Public Health and Urban Planning. According to this report from the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) on Urban Planning and Public Heath “Urban planning and public health share common missions and perspectives. Both aim to improve human well-being, emphasize needs assessment and service delivery, manage complex social systems, focus at the population level, and rely on community-based participatory methods.”

What is Public Health?

Public health is a broad field that aims to promote healthy lifestyles and prevent disease. Its focus can be a small group or work site or a large population such as schools, communities or countries. Public health differs from the traditional medical model because it aims to prevent disease than offer treatment. Public health has the broad spectrum of working with entire populations and not treating each patient. Different topics include, but are not limited to; epidemiology, quality improvement, health education, environmental health, maternal and infant health, and nutrition. Public health operates under the assumption that health is not only related to an person’s biochemistry but there are many influencing factors, many outside of the control of the person (See Image for the Social Determinants of Health Model). The environment where one lives and social factors influence a person’s health. For example living in an unsafe environment without access to nutritious foods can have impact on your health outcome.

HISTORY

Public health practices originated when the understanding of the causes of disease became more clear. During the times of historic epidemics like the black plague, researchers discovered ways to prevent the spread of disease through sanitation practices. John Snow started epidemiology (the study of disease) after studying the cholera outbreak in London in 1854 and linking it to polluted city water. Another notable discovery in public health is the discovery of vaccinations, which has completely eradicated smallpox and has controlled many diseases such as measles.

CURRENT NEEDS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

Now that there we understand the cause of many diseases and in much of the developed world there is proper sanitation and access to clean water, there has been a shift in public health trends. People are dying less often from contagious diseases but are now suffering more from chronic disease. Chronic diseases such as obesity, cancer and heart disease are taking a huge toll on the livelihood of millions on our healthcare system. Although such chronic disease are not contagious, they are often preventable. Public health measures are a cost-effective way to decrease the burden of these chronic diseases. Through changing the environment where people live and the policies that affect us all we can help create a healthier environment. This quick video gives an overview of what public health covers and the impact it has.

Mission Statement, Part 2

As a followup to our first post, Part 2 is the second half of our mission statement and can always be viewed on our Mission Page. Our purpose with issuing a mission statement is to be upfront and honest with our readers about our goals and objectives.

WHAT WE WILL DO

1. PROMOTE public health and urban planning
2. TEACH communities how they are affected
3. GIVE perspective on current events and projects
4. LEARN through discussions with our readers
5. INFORM about our growing careers

WHAT WE WILL NOT DO

1. Have a political AGENDA
2. Ask for MONEY
3. Support ADVERTISEMENTS
4. Encourage UNHEALTHY lifestyles