Rebuilding the Unity of Health and the Environment The Greater Houston Metropolitan Area: Workshop Summary (2005) / Chapter Skim
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5 Built Environment
5 Built Environment
Pages 39-56
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From page 39... ...
Unfortunately, said Samuel H Wilson, deputy director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the typical American community is characterized by the poorly designed and often unplanned version, replete with such characteristics as traffic congestion, poor air quality, and a weak sense of community -- all of which appear to be true of Houston, though it is by no means alone.
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From page 40... ...
Moreover, this built environment pattern, whose FIGURE 5.1 As populations move, there is a shift from traditional neighborhoods to suburban areas. In traditional neighborhoods, residents can walk to nearby schools, shopping destinations, and other conveniences.
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From page 41... ...
When it comes to serious and severe crashes of automobiles, crashes with trucks, and crashes with rail vehicles in at-grade crossings, the Houston metropolitan area has the highest rates in Texas and ranks very close to the top in the nation, reported Catherine Pernot of the Gulf Coast Institute. In 1999, for example, the region had more than 80,000 serious crashes that caused 518 fatalities and almost 52,000 injuries (McCann and Ewing, 2003)
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From page 42... ...
FIGURE 5.3 Similar to national trends, the regions that encompass the greater Houston metropolitan area vary in overall obesity odds. The sprawl index used data from the U.S.
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From page 43... ...
The condition is associated with overall mortality and particularly with enhanced risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, gall bladder disease, several different types of cancer, (e.g., such as gastrointestinal tract, kidney, and breast) and other illnesses.
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From page 44... ...
. Similarly, several studies have found that children who attend a school near heavy traffic are more likely to exhibit more inflammatory markers and a greater frequency of respiratory infections and symptoms (Janssen et al., 2003; Mukala et al., 1996; Shima et al., 2003; Steerenberg et al., 2001)
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From page 45... ...
With regard to the built environment, specifically as it affects physical activity, DeLucia stressed the need for city planning, zoning, and sustainable design, together with appropriate incentives -- for walkable and bikeable communities, for example, and for buildings configurations that encourage the use of stairs. In this spirit, Pernot noted that although authorities in the Houston area expect to increase the number of lane-miles in the region by 53 percent over the next 20 years -- a gain of about 10,000 lane-miles -- they also plan to bolster mass transit and implement other kinds of local development in order to reduce vehicular emissions and create more walkable neighborhoods.
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From page 46... ...
It may well represent the "low hanging fruit," Yeoman said, and our greatest opportunity to address global climate change and other environmental health issues. It is possible to build healthier buildings that have drastically reduced energy consumption; because minimal disturbance to ecosystems; are sited in clustered developments so that transportation requirements are reduced; are built from materials providing long service lives and causing no adverse effects among occupants; feature renewable energy systems; and are designed for flexibility and adaptive reuse.
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From page 47... ...
. Future steps, according to Yeoman, should include national funding of basic research that links built systems and health; good-government statements, emanating particularly from the academic sector, that strongly encourage all political subdivisions to adopt and employ LEED in the construction of public buildings; and a nationwide campaign of public education directed toward individual FIGURE 5.6 Top 10 states with LEED new construction.
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From page 48... ...
TURNING DOWN THE HEAT Cities, in which some 80 percent of the American people live, are sometimes called "heat islands" in recognition of the fact that they are warmer than their suburbs and surrounding countryside. As a region's urbanization intensifies moreover, so does its heat island status: the temperature goes up.
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From page 49... ...
could decrease the concentration of ozone by about 30 to 40 parts per billion -- an effect comparable to that of making half of the cars in the Los Angeles basin electric. Akbari and his colleagues have computed that if all these heat island reduction steps were taken in Los Angeles, the smog level would be reduced by 12 percent, some $350 million dollars per year could be saved in health costs, and energy savings could amount to $170 million (Rosenfeld et al., 1998)
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From page 50... ...
Martina E Cartwright, director of the Environmental Law and Justice Center of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, offered a definition of environmental justice that she said is now widely accepted by community groups and environmental professionals: "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people of color, national origin, or income with respect to development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." The environmental justice movement began in earnest in 1982, she said, when the State of North Carolina tried to locate a PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl)
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From page 51... ...
. Thus, a traditional violation of environmental justice has been in the administration, or lack thereof, of brownfields -- which Cartwright defined as abandoned, idled, or underutilized industrial and commercial facilities, where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination, that often cause a nuisance and health threat to the surrounding community.
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From page 52... ...
, described the progress of the chemical industry toward the environmental health goals discussed by previous speakers. The chemical industry is a critical element of the nation's economy: it has revenues of about $450 billion dollars a year, is the largest exporter in the United States, invests more in research and development than any other industrial sector, and is responsible for about a million jobs.
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From page 53... ...
These metrics reflect Responsible Care® environmental, health, safety, and security performance as well as efforts to safeguard reputation, sustainable development, products, and other initiatives. This means that the companies are opening themselves up to public review and scrutiny and that the data will be public, she said.
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From page 54... ...
OSHA recordable incident -- Company Company 2005 rate-contractors 5a. Percent facilities completing Company Industry 2004 security assessments based on Security Code schedule (%)
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From page 55... ...
11. Company has in place a process Company Company 2005 to communicate results of the risk characterization and management process in an effort to facilitate public knowledge ("yes"/"no")
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From page 56... ...
Because values such as beauty, proportion, scale, and harmony have great meaning to people, the degradation of the physical environment and the loss of quality in architectural social capital have an accumulating effect on the spiritual and mental health of the community. Public health would therefore be well advised to spend a lot more time and effort in trying to understand what community mental health really is and what role it plays in social cohesion.
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