Environmental Health
The term environmental health is used to frame issues where pollution and toxins in the environment cause or contribute to health problems, both chronic and acute.
The problems are created by the ways we heat & cool our buildings, manufacture products, extract mineral & energy resources, generate electrical power, and transport products [and ourselves!]. The industrialized food system, with its intensive use of energy, artificial fertilizers, and pesticides is a major source of pollution in the communities where it is grown as well as in the food itself.
Environmental health concerns often have a very disproportionate impact on minorities and low-income people because of the ways facilities and roads are sited.
Diesel Pollution in the Lehigh Valley
Many believe that school buses are the safest method of transportation for children to get to school, but is it the healthiest? Diesel pollution is becoming a more significant problem across the United States today and specifically, the Lehigh Valley … more
Sustainability in Food Businesses
There are many steps that can be taken to promote sustainability in food businesses. Today, there are numerous concerns that trouble businesses that are attempting to become more sustainable. This is because of the financial, environment, and psychological benefits that … more
Food on Campus
The Dining Services offered at both Lafayette College and Lehigh University have already taken some measures to becoming more environmentally sustainable organizations. Specifically, at Lafayette some of the vegetables served in the dining facilities around campus are grown in the … more
Do campus food services contribute to sustainability and health?
Campus dining services, like other institutional food-service operations, prepare large volumes of food every day, most of it the product of the industrialized agriculture system, not grown sustainably. It is often served in ways that produce large volumes of waste, … more
Wilkinsburg PA Adopts Community Rights Ordinance That Bans Gas Drilling
Tuesday, July 20, 2011 – By a unanimous vote, the Borough Council of Wilkinsburg, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, adopted ordinance number 28-70 that enacts an enforceable Local Bill of Rights, along with a prohibition on natural gas extraction to protect those … more
Paying for the Waste You Generate
Even the free-market folks should like the idea of having those who generate the waste pay the costs of disposing of it. Not only does it allocate costs more fairly, it provides an automatic incentive to reduce the volume of … more
Sewage Sludge
One reliable & comprehensive source of information about sludge and the dangers associated with its use is the Sludge-Free Alliance, based in nearby Berks County. Here’s an introductory paragraph from their website: For just one moment, think of everything that gets flushed or rinsed … more
Health Costs of Traffic Congestion
Harvard Center for Risk Analysis examines the public health costs of congestion A Health Risk Assessment conducted by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis challenges the tendency for analysts and policymakers to focus only on excess fuel consumption and wasted … more
Earth Charter
The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental ethical principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society in the 21st century. It seeks to inspire in all people a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for … more
Lester Brown’s Plan B
The Wikipedia article on Lester R. Brown provides a lot of useful information on his life and the development of his ideas. Of note is his background in agriculture, food matters, and population, as well as his successes in entrepreneurial … more