For Immediate Release: February 28, 1997
Contact: Sharon Rippey 410-955-6878
Contact: Lisbeth Pettengill; [email protected]
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Study Tracks "Tremendous Growth" in Environmental Agencies, Decline in Public Health Response
A complex infrastructure that includes not only the federal government but also a web of state health and environmental agencies has evolved over the past twenty-five years in response to a surge in federal and state laws governing environmental protection. An examination of this infrastructure is the core of a report by researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health published in the March, 1997 issue of Public Health Management and Practice.
Lead author Thomas A. Burke, Ph.D., associate professor, Health Policy and Management, said that the report gives a "macroscopic picture of the national infrastructure and identifies the federal and state agencies involved in carrying out all environmental health and regulatory activities." Dr. Burke's group collected organizational charts, program descriptions, and budget information from all fifty states. Because of the diversity among states, the quality and completeness of the data varied widely from state to state. However, an overall picture emerged.
The environmental responsibilities and funding of state health departments has declined steadily. Far more was spent per capita on environmental regulatory activities than on environmental health. State budget information showed that the national average per capita expenditure on environmental regulatory activities was $18.87, based on 1990 census data. The national per capita expenditure for environmental health activities was $4.09. Environmental health activities, traditionally associated with departments of health include surveillance, epidemiology, and education. The report indicated that these functions were still performed by health agencies but that those agencies no longer take the lead in environmental regulation.
The project also showed that state environmental agencies may be poorly equipped to gear up a health-risk-based approach to environmental protection as would have been mandated by a number of bills in the last Congress. Only a small percentage of environmental agencies were found to have the ability to conduct epidemiological evaluations or to carry out applied health risk assessment research. Although the fundamental goal of the national environmental laws is the protection of public health, they have done little to develop the capacity of states to calculate environmental health risks.
The report showed that federal legislation regarding the environment has spawned a multi-billion dollar state infrastructure but that infrastructure lacks the capacity to evaluate environmental health risks. The report recommends a closer relationship between health and environmental agencies to resolve the disparities between regulatory and health activities and improvement of public health education of the broad range of professionals involved in environmental protection.
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