PRHE at American Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Expo 2019

Monday, November 4th

Translating Environmental Health Sciences for Diverse Audiences to Protect Children’s Health
Session 3354.0
Time: 3:00 – 4:30pm
Location: 104B

Protecting children’s environmental health requires partnerships at various levels to build the environmental health literacy of different audiences to promote action at the individual, community, and national level. The Centers for Children’s Environmental Health, funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), serve as a national network to engage with a variety of audiences to translate the latest environmental health science into culturally appropriate messages and materials that raise environmental health literacy. In this session, four representatives from Centers will focus on how they identified environmental health knowledge and addressed their audience’s needs.

Moderator
Liam O’Fallon, MA

 

 

A Recipe for Prevention: Embedding Environmental Health in Healthcare
Annemarie Charlesworth, MA
3:00-3:20pm

 

Knowledge Child Care Providers Need about Environmental Influences on Children’s Health
Brenda Koester, MS
3:20-3:40pm

 

It Takes A Village: Investing in Community Outreach and Research Translation to Address Environmental Health Disparities
Haguerenesh Woldeyohannes, MPH, RN
3:40-4:00pm

 

Engaging key stakeholders to reduce early life exposure to arsenic from food and contaminated water
Carolyn Murray, MD, MPH
4:00-4:30pm

 

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Tuesday, November 5th

Taking action to defend science and protect public health at the Environmental Protection Agency
Session 4142.0
Time: 10:30am-12:00pm
Location: 107A

Almost everything the EPA does to protect public health and the environment depends on science. However, the role of science in decision making has been under attack in recent years. EPA proposed a rule that would restrict the use of relevant science in decision-making and require the agency to consider certain statistical models even when doing so is scientifically inappropriate. The agency has taken additional steps to limit the use of critical data in chemical risk evaluations conducted under the Toxic Substances Control Act. To avoid oversight, EPA political appointees have shuttered expert review panels for air pollution standards, and replaced independent scientists with industry representatives on the agency’s science advisory committees. If successful, such attacks on science will weaken public health protections. This session brings together scientists, lawyers, and policy experts to discuss the range of attacks on science at EPA.

Moderator
Patricia Koman, MPP, PhD

 

 

Censoring Science: How the Trump Administration Is Trying to Control the Data and Models Used in EPA Decision-Making
Tyler Smith, MPH
10:30-10:50am

 

Key issues undermining evidence-based decisions on chemicals at EPA
Veena Singla, PhD
10:50-11:10am

 

Taking the Science out of Scientific Review of Air Quality Standards
Chris Frey, PhD
11:10-11:30am

 

Legal Advocacy to Defend the Use of Science in the Federal Government
Eve Gartner, JD
11:30am-12:00pm

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Talking Toxics
Film Session FF09 Climate’s Effect on Health
Presenter: Susan Lamontagne, Public Interest Media Group
Time: 12:15-1:00pm
Location: 114 Michael Nutter Theater

Read the press release here.

This short film examines how toxic chemicals are undermining health, particularly reproductive health, and the challenges in developing health protective policies that keep up with the growing science. It also documents the historic position taken by the International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (FIGO) to urge policymakers around the globe to find ways to reduce toxic chemical exposures. The film features leading environmental health scientists including UCSF Professor Tracey J. Woodruff and Bruce Lanphear, MD of Simon Fraser University, both of whom have led landmark studies documenting the effects of toxic chemicals on pregnant women and children, and former ACOG President and now FIGO President Jeanne Conry, MD, as well as ob-gyns from around the globe.

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A comprehensive review of consumer and occupational methylene chloride fatalities in the US from 1980-2018 and policy implications
Session 4334.0 Chemicals and Public Health
Presenter: Veena Singla, PhD
Time: 3:20-3:40pm
Location: 109A

Methylene chloride is an organic solvent widely found in common products including paint strippers, metal cleaners, and adhesives. In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that methylene chloride containing paint strippers were responsible for 13 fatalities among professional bathtub refinishers. However, there is no comprehensive identification and analysis of consumer or occupational methylene chloride fatalities in the US.

This session will describe why methylene chloride is a major concern for consumer and occupational health and safety, will discuss the circumstances and demographic patterns of methylene chloride fatalities in the US in the last 40 years, and make recommendations for US policy approaches.