Coordinating a Community Study of Environmental Health

Abstract

FOUR URBAN areas in the United States, Fort Wayne, Ind., Omaha, Nebr., Lake County, Ill., and Springfield, Mo., conducted environmental health surveys during 1962-63 with a view to community planning. An environmental health study may be definied as a comprehensive analysis of all the health-related services and facilities in an area with an evaluation of pertinent local ordinances and enforcement procedures. It culminates in a report identifying any deficiencies in facilities or quality of services offered and recommends corrective measures, including physical changes in the metropolitan area. Such a survey is an essential element in a city's master plan. The health programs which have been considered in environmental health surveys have been concerned mainly with the external and physical aspects of an urban environment. Milk and food sanitation, housing, water supply, water pollution, air pollution, waste disposal, radiation sources, and public nuisances have been the most significant areas of environmental health interest which have been analyzed. The basic intention of such analysis is to apply principles of preventive medicine to environmental sanitation. Conditions surveyed in a study are considered not only with regard to their immediate solution but also to their long-range effects. By calling attention to benign conditions which have a potential malignancy, it may be possible to plan the expansion of an area's programs so as to prevent future distress.