Abstract |
This workbook will help community leaders, local organizers, and citizens groups assess environmental health problems in their neighborhoods and assist them in tackling these problems. It outlines an approach to identifying problems, gathering information, and establishing the community's priorities for improving the environmental health of its residents. Examples for Washington, D.C. serve as illustrations and possible examples. Residents of other cities and localities can find equivalent resources and data within their own communities. Environmental health is part of public health. It looks at the environment in terms of the pollutants, human behavior, and other factors that affect human health. In public health terms, the environment includes the food we eat, the air we breathe (indoor and outdoor), the housing we live in, the water we use for cooking, drinking and bathing, the recreational lands that we use, as well as the parks and wilderness areas we have preserved for future generations. |