The Promise of Local Environmental Health Initiatives

Abstract

This book examines three local initiatives to promote urban environmental health equity by changing policies, systems, and environments. The initiatives developed to address diverse environmental health problems: lead hazards in rental housing in Rochester, New York; the built environment in Duluth, Minnesota; and goods movement around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. In each case, stakeholders confronted a longstanding environmental health inequity. All three built collaborative efforts across disciplinary barriers and leveraged multiple sources of knowledge. They also built their partners’ capacity and influenced how local decisions are made in ways that are likely to foster future reductions in health disparities. This chapter highlights the common themes across all the cases, reflects on the potential to disseminate lessons learned in other communities, and suggests how similar efforts might be supported elsewhere in the future.