COMMUNITY RISK PROFILES:
A Tool to Improve Environment and Community Health
Prepared for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Editor: Iddo K. Wernick,
Program for the Human Environment, The Rockefeller University
APRIL 1995
ISBN 0-9646419-0-9
URL: http://phe.rockefeller.edu/comm_risk/
For more information or to request reprints, please contact us at
phe@mail.rockefeller.edu
Preface
This report presents the results of a one-year exploratory
study
on the "Environment and Community Health: Historical Evolution and
Emerging Needs" sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The
Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University
conducted the study. The subject of the study was the analytical,
informational, and service delivery framework for meeting needs in
health care and environmental protection using the community as the
focal point or, by medical analogy, the "community as the
patient."
To broaden the base of knowledge and professional contacts
available to the project, we formed a Steering Group including
members
experienced in public health and environment, government, community
organization, and information technologies and services (Appendix
A).
Prior to the first meeting of the Steering Group, we devised a
framework to raise relevant issues, better define the most fruitful
lines of inquiry, and map out the future course of the project. The
Steering Group met on April 19, 1994 at The Rockefeller University.
The members resolved to examine three basic questions and
commission
case studies to explore them in the context of specific communities
in
the United States.
The three questions were
-- What is the current status of deliberative processes
for
risk assessment at the level of the community?
-- How can governments, independent and private sector
groups,
and researchers better use information technologies to
access,
integrate, and disseminate information about health and environment
and related concerns at the local level?
-- What policy levers can government use to ensure
that
communities better address remediating local environmental hazards
and
improve the efficacy of local health care delivery?
To conclude the definitional phase of the project, Iddo
Wernick
drafted a discussion paper with the assistance of the Steering
Group
articulating the problems so far uncovered and providing the
orientation for further work (pages 25-34). Planning for a larger
Forum began, and two case studies were formally commissioned to be
presented at the Forum. Theodore Glickman, a Senior Fellow at the
Center for Risk Management of Resources for the Future (RFF),
prepared
a report on environmental equity in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania,
using a Geographical Information System (GIS) as the framework.
Lenny
Siegel, Director of the Pacific Studies Center in Mountain View,
California, reviewed the recent history of community efforts in
addressing environmental problems in Silicon Valley, California,
and
described a process for developing community risk profiles based on
his experience working as a community activist with federal, state,
and local governments.
The two case studies, "Evaluating Environmental Equity in
Allegheny County" (pages 35-62) and "Comparing Apples and
Supercomputers: Evaluating Environmental Risk in Silicon Valley"
(pages 63-79) formed the core of the agenda for the Forum on
Environment and Community Health, held on September 20, 1994 at
The
Rockefeller University. The Forum included professionals from the
public and private sectors with expertise in public health,
environment, and community services (list of participants, Appendix
A). Background reading, sent prior to the Forum, oriented
participants
to the purposes of the project (see Bibliography and Suggested
Reading).
This report presents the main findings of the exploratory
study.
We stop short of costing out its main recommendation, an obvious
next
step.
Drafted initially by Iddo Wernick, this report synthesizes the
informed contributions offered by the many people who have been a
part
of the study. Reflecting our backgrounds in environment, we tend to
offer more detail on environment than health. The Forum
participants
have reviewed this report, and the Steering Group members have
reviewed and approved it.
We thank Doris Manville for her assistance in organizing and
administering the project. We wish to thank other people with whom
we
consulted during the project including Mark Schaefer, Assistant
Director for Environment, White House Office of Science and
Technology
Policy; Margaret Hamburg, M.D., Commissioner, New York City
Department
of Health; Debora Martin, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and
Kenneth Jones and colleagues at the Northeast Center for
Comparative
Risk.
Jesse H. Ausubel
Director, Program for the Human Environment
Iddo K. Wernick
Research Associate, Program for the Human
Environment
| Summary |
Background Paper |
| Evaluating Environmental Equity in Allegheny County |
| Comparing Apples and Supercomputers:
Evaluating Environmental Risk in Silicon Valley |
| List of Participants |
Return to PHE Home Page
| 
