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Healthy Solutions for the Low Carbon Economy
Guidelines for Investors, Insurers and Policy Makers
 Healthy and Sustainable Communities
Howard Frumkin M.D., Dr.P.H., National Center for Environmental Health, CDC
Lecture Given on April 11, 2007
Lecturer Biography
Lecture Summary
Readings
Resources
Lecture Video (Streaming)
Powerpoint (PDF)
Biography
Howard Frumkin, MD, MPH, DrPH, serves as director of the National Center for Environmental Health, ATSDR. NCEH/ATSDR works to maintain and improve the health of the American people by promoting a healthy environment and by preventing premature death and avoidable illness and disability caused by toxic substances and other environmental hazards.
Before joining the CDC in September 2005, he was professor and chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, and professor of medicine at Emory Medical School, in Atlanta. At Emory, he founded and directed the Environmental and Occupational Medicine Consultation Clinic, the Occupational Medicine Residency training program, and the Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. Doctor Frumkin is an internist, environmental and occupational medicine specialist, and epidemiologist.
He previously served on the board of directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), where he co-chaired the Environment Committee; as president of the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC); as chair of the Science Board of the American Public Health Association (APHA); as a member of EPA's Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, where he chaired the Smart Growth and Climate Change work groups; and on the National Toxicology Program Board of Scientific Counselors.
He currently serves on the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine. In Georgia, he was a member of the state's Hazardous Waste Management Authority, the Department of Agriculture Pesticide Advisory Committee, and the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division Partnership Program Advisory Committee, and is a graduate of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership.
In Georgia's Clean Air Campaign, he served on the board and chaired the Health/Technical Committee. He was named Environmental Professional of the Year by the Georgia Environmental Council in 2004. He has served as a consultant to several corporations, including Hewlett-Packard, Southwire, Georgia Power, and Polaroid, and to several unions, including the Chemical Workers Association and the Utility Workers Union.
He is the author or co-author of over 100 scientific journal articles and chapters, and has written numerous books. Dr. Frumkin received his BA from Brown University, his MD from the University of Pennsylvania, his MPH and DrPH from Harvard, his internal medicine training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Cambridge Hospital, and his occupational medicine training at Harvard. He is board-certified in both internal medicine and occupational medicine, and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Summary
Humans have lived in villages, then towns, then cities, for 10,000 years. Urbanization has advanced to the point that half the human population lives in cities, and the city can be considered the typical human ecosystem. In this class session we’ll examine the concept of urbanization from several perspectives. First, we’ll define “city” and “urbanization,” and look at some data on global urbanization trends. Next, we’ll consider the environmental impacts of cities, using the “ecological footprint” concept. We’ll then move from environmental impacts to human health impacts, and discuss how the structure and function of a city—or of any place, really—may affect human health. We will discuss the increasing trend toward the use of smart growth principals in city design. This includes the development of an effective transportation policy, the design of mixed-use, dense communities, and the preservation of parks and greenspace. Each of these factors has the potential to affect our health and the environment. Finally, this session will highlight the connections between land use patterns, transportation and transit policy, and the overall promotion of healthy places.
Readings
Frumkin H. Urban sprawl and public health. Public Health Reports. 2002;117(3):201-17.
Frumkin H. Healthy Places: Exploring the evidence. American Journal of Public Health. 2003; 93(9):1451-55.
Resources
Mutatkar RK. Public health problems of urbanization. Social Science and Medicine. 1995;41(7): 977-81.
Vlahov D, Gibble E, Freudenberg N, Galea S. Cities and Health: History, Approaches, and Key Questions. Acad Med. 2004;79:1133-38.
Wackernagel M, Schulz NB, Deumling D, et al. Tracking the ecological overshoot of the human economy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2002;99(14):9266-71.
On ecological footprints:
Urban and Ecological Footprints. Web site of the Global Development Research Center. Plenty of links to other ecological footprint sources, including “calculators” to help compute the footprint of specific locations.
Rees WE, Wackernagel M, Testemale P. Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. Vancouver: New Society Publishers; 1995.
Chambers N, Simmons C, Wackernagel M. Sharing Nature’s Interest:Ecological Footprints as an Indicator of Sustainability. London: Earthscan; 2001.
On sustainable cities:
International Centre for Sustainable Cities, Vancouver.
Hardoy JE, Mitlin D, Satterthwaite D. Environmental Problems in an Urbanizing World: Finding Solutions in Africa, Asia and Latin America. London: Earthscan; 2001.
On healthy cities:
CDC's Healthy Places website
Healthy Cities International. Web site of the International Healthy Cities Foundation, based at UC Berkeley.
Healthy Cities and Urban Governance. Web site of the WHO Healthy Cities initiative, based in the European regional office (Copenhagen).
On urban sprawl:
Smart Growth online. Web site of the Smart Growth Network, a public-private partnership affiliated with the US EPA.
Smart Growth America, an advocacy group that promotes transportation and land use solutions to sprawl.
Duany A, Plater-Zyberk E, Speck J. Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press; 2001.
Gillham O, Maclean AS. The Limitless City: A Primer on the Urban Sprawl Debate. Washington: Island Press; 2002.
Frumkin H, Frank L, Jackson RJ. Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities. Washington: Island Press; 2004.
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