Last data update: May 13, 2024. (Total: 46773 publications since 2009)
Records 1-7 (of 7 Records) |
Query Trace: Frumkin H[original query] |
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The role of physicians in promoting healthier built environments
Dannenberg AL , Wu P , Frumkin H . Am J Prev Med 2013 44 (6) e67-9 The normal physician treats the problem; the good physician treats the person; the best physician treats the community. | —Chinese proverb | | Most physicians work in clinical settings, providing one-to-one care to their patients. However, physicians long have recognized that involvement with community-level concerns can be necessary and appropriate to help address broad health-related issues. Some of the most important health advances, such as smoking restrictions, seat belt requirements, bicycle helmets, and environmental lead reduction, have grown out of collaboration between health and community sectors. Physician advocacy has been a key part of these strategies. | Involvement at the community level requires physicians to use a different set of skills than those practiced in the exam room, including advocacy in the community and collaboration with nonmedical disciplines. In exercising these skills, physicians expand their focus from a single patient to all families in the community. More than 90% of physicians in a nationwide survey endorsed community participation, political involvement, and collective advocacy by physicians.1 The current paper presents discussion of what physicians can do to influence the physical design of their communities to yield health benefits for both their patients and all families in their community. Individual motivation and choice are critical in behaviors such as healthy eating and being physically active, but equally important is the concept that “place” makes these behaviors possible. |
From conversation to action: implementation of the National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures
Nielsen JA . J Environ Health 2012 75 (3) 38-39 As our society has advanced, chemicals | have become increasingly present in | our air, water, food and homes; thus, | a key responsibility of environmental health | professionals is to protect the public from these | chemical exposures. In 2009, the Centers for | Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and | the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease | Registry (ATSDR) launched the National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures project to help address national concerns about toxic exposures (Frumkin, 2009). | The goal of the National Conversation was to | develop an Action Agenda with clear, achievable recommendations to help government | agencies and other organizations strengthen | their efforts to protect the public from harmful chemical exposures. CDC and ATSDR | engaged a broad range of groups and individuals—government agencies, professional | organizations, tribal groups, community and | nonprofit organizations, health professionals, | business and industry leaders, and members | of the public—to assist with this undertaking. This group developed the Action Agenda | (“Addressing Public Health and Chemical Exposures: An Action Agenda”— www.national | conversation.us/action-agenda) and released it | in June 2011. |
Impacts of climate change on public health in India: future research directions
Bush KF , Luber G , Kotha SR , Dhaliwal RS , Kapil V , Pascual M , Brown DG , Frumkin H , Dhiman RC , Hess J , Wilson ML , Balakrishnan K , Eisenberg J , Kaur T , Rood R , Batterman S , Joseph A , Gronlund CJ , Agrawal A , Hu H . Environ Health Perspect 2011 119 (6) 765-70 BACKGROUND: Climate change and associated increases in climate variability will likely further exacerbate global health disparities. More research is needed, particularly in developing countries, to accurately predict the anticipated impacts and inform effective interventions. OBJECTIVES: Building on the information presented at the 2009 Joint Indo-U.S. Workshop on Climate Change and Health in Goa, India, we reviewed relevant literature and data, addressed gaps in knowledge, and identified priorities and strategies for future research in India. DISCUSSION: The scope of the problem in India is enormous, based on the potential for climate change and variability to exacerbate endemic malaria, dengue, yellow fever, cholera, and chikungunya, as well as chronic diseases, particularly among the millions of people who already experience poor sanitation, pollution, malnutrition, and a shortage of drinking water. Ongoing efforts to study these risks were discussed but remain scant. A universal theme of the recommendations developed was the importance of improving the surveillance, monitoring, and integration of meteorological, environmental, geospatial, and health data while working in parallel to implement adaptation strategies. CONCLUSIONS: It will be critical for India to invest in improvements in information infrastructure that are innovative and that promote interdisciplinary collaborations while embarking on adaptation strategies. This will require unprecedented levels of collaboration across diverse institutions in India and abroad. The data can be used in research on the likely impacts of climate change on health that reflect India's diverse climates and populations. Local human and technical capacities for risk communication and promoting adaptive behavior must also be enhanced. |
Urban form and extreme heat events: are sprawling cities more vulnerable to climate change than compact cities?
Stone B , Hess JJ , Frumkin H . Environ Health Perspect 2010 118 (10) 1425-1428 BACKGROUND: Extreme heat events (EHEs) are increasing in frequency in large U.S. cities and are responsible for a greater annual number of climate-related fatalities, on average, than any other form of extreme weather. In addition, low-density, sprawling patterns of urban development have been associated with enhanced surface temperatures in urbanized areas. OBJECTIVES: In this study. we examined the association between urban form at the level of the metropolitan region and the frequency of EHEs over a five-decade period. METHODS: We employed a widely published sprawl index to measure the association between urban form in 2000 and the mean annual rate of change in EHEs between 1956 and 2005. RESULTS: We found that the rate of increase in the annual number of EHEs between 1956 and 2005 in the most sprawling metropolitan regions was more than double the rate of increase observed in the most compact metropolitan regions. CONCLUSIONS: The design and management of land use in metropolitan regions may offer an important tool for adapting to the heat-related health effects associated with ongoing climate change. |
Environmental metrics for community health improvement
Jakubowski B , Frumkin H . Prev Chronic Dis 2010 7 (4) A76 Environmental factors greatly affect human health. Accordingly, environmental metrics are a key part of the community health information base. We review environmental metrics relevant to community health, including measurements of contaminants in environmental media, such as air, water, and food; measurements of contaminants in people (biomonitoring); measurements of features of the built environment that affect health; and measurements of "upstream" environmental conditions relevant to health. We offer a set of metrics (including unhealthy exposures, such as pollutants, and health-promoting assets, such as parks and green space) selected on the basis of relevance to health outcomes, magnitude of associated health outcomes, corroboration in the peer-reviewed literature, and data availability, especially at the community level, and we recommend ways to use these metrics most effectively. |
Public health partnerships in medical toxicology education and practice
Schier JG , Rubin C , Schwartz MD , Thomas JD , Geller RJ , Morgan BW , McGeehin MA , Frumkin H . Am J Prev Med 2010 38 (6) 667-74 In December 2002, the medical toxicology sub-board, which consists of representatives from emergency medicine, preventive medicine, and pediatrics, released revised core content for medical toxicology, aiming to better meet the academic challenges imposed by the continually expanding knowledge base of medical toxicology. These challenges included the addition of relatively new areas of interest in medical toxicology, including population health, while simultaneously ensuring that a structural framework existed to accommodate future areas of interest. There is no evidence readily available to assess how well the educational curricula of existing fellowship programs are meeting these needs. In an effort to address this, the authors describe a medical toxicology fellowship program that consists of a partnership among the Emory University School of Medicine, the Georgia Poison Control Center, and the CDC, as well as the results of a reorganization of its academic curriculum that occurred in 2006. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first published report describing such a curriculum redesign. Suggestions and potential resources proposed as enhancements for the public health-associated education of medical toxicology fellows are discussed. The authors also seek to initiate a discussion among programs about how to optimally meet the new challenges developed by the medical toxicology sub-board. |
Climate change and emergency medicine: impacts and opportunities
Hess JJ , Heilpern KL , Davis TE , Frumkin H . Acad Emerg Med 2009 16 (8) 782-94 There is scientific consensus that the climate is changing, that human activity plays a major role, and that the changes will continue through this century. Expert consensus holds that significant health effects are very likely. Public health and health care systems must understand these impacts to properly pursue preparedness and prevention activities. All of medicine will very likely be affected, and certain medical specialties are likely to be more significantly burdened based on their clinical activity, ease of public access, public health roles, and energy use profiles. These specialties have been called on to consider the likely impacts on their patients and practice and to prepare their practitioners. Emergency medicine (EM), with its focus on urgent and emergent ambulatory care, role as a safety-net provider, urban concentration, and broad-based clinical mission, will very likely experience a significant rise in demand for its services over and above current annual increases. Clinically, EM will see amplification of weather-related disease patterns and shifts in disease distribution. In EM's prehospital care and disaster response activities, both emergency medical services (EMS) activity and disaster medical assistance team (DMAT) deployment activities will likely increase. EM's public health roles, including disaster preparedness, emergency department (ED)-based surveillance, and safety-net care, are likely to face increasing demands, along with pressures to improve fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, EM's roles in ED and hospital management, particularly related to building and purchasing, are likely to be impacted by efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance energy efficiency. Climate change thus presents multiple clinical and public health challenges to EM, but also creates numerous opportunities for research, education, and leadership on an emerging health issue of global scope. |
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