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Environmental Factor, August 2008, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Looking to the Future of Environmental Public Health

By Eddy Ball
August 2008

Seated beside Collman, left, Wilson underscored the need for community-based participatory research (CBPR). “We all know… that many of the situations are local and have to do with ways that certain communities are structured,” he said. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

“What we want to do at this workshop is to work on creating a vision for future programs,” Collman told the participants. “This program builds on a lot of investments that we’ve made over the last decade.” (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

According to Collman, the decision to involve NIEHS National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council members Hillary Carpenter, Ph.D., shown above, and Stefani Hines as participants was one more indication of the working group’s commitment to transparency. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

Among the leaders in environmental public health attending the workshop was University of Washington Community-Campus Partnerships for Health Program Director Kristine Wong, a seasoned veteran of CBPR on the west coast. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

Nancy Rothman, Ed.D., director of Community-based Practices at the Temple University School of Nursing, spoke on educational needs for nurses involved in environmental public health. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

NIEHS Program Analyst Liam O’Fallon, shown during the meeting introduction, played an instrumental role in crafting the November 2007 RFI and analyzing the responses from a diverse mix of stakeholders. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

The NIEHS Partnerships for Environmental Public Health (PEPH) working group held its first brainstorming workshop June 30 - July 1 in Rodbell Auditorium. Organized by the program staff in the NIEHS Division of Extramural Research and Training (DERT), the workshop brought together leaders representing diverse groups with a keen interest in environmental public health (EPH) from across the United States in an effort to chart a course for the Institute’s continued involvement in EPH over the decade to come.

The PEPH initiative arose from a congressional hearing held in September 2007, when NIEHS Acting Director Sam Wilson, M.D., testified about the Institute’s commitment to supporting environmental public health programs and community-based participatory research (CBPR). This testimony lead to NIEHS embarking on a series of activities designed to create this new PEPH program. In November 2007, the PEPH working group released a Request for Information (RFI). The RFI elicited some 120 responses about the Institute’s role in environmental public health from environmental health researchers, healthcare professionals, educators, policy makers and other members of the public with a vested interest in the effects of environmental exposures on health.

In his welcoming remarks, Wilson reinforced the message he delivered to Congress. “This meeting really is an instrumental opportunity for NIEHS and for the field of environmental health sciences,” he said, “to help the Institute frame its approach for moving forward over the next five to ten years. This area represents the research leading edge in real world health implications of environmental exposures — [as well as offering] a way to sharpen our focus on community-based environmental health challenges.”

Wilson spoke of the need to determine the “special niche” for NIEHS in the area of environmental public health and “to figure out how we will frame the research program as we go forward.”

DERT Susceptibility and Population Health Branch Chief Gwen Collman, Ph.D., filled in the details of the workshop’s goals. Collman described the Institute’s need for input from stakeholders about how to create something “unified, integrated and synergistic” to help meet future EPH challenges. She emphasized that the ideas DERT staff had already put forth were “straw men,” intended to spark open discussion and a free exchange of ideas. “Everything is a work in progress here,” she maintained. “We have no a priori ideas about what the workshop product is going to look like.”

The workshop was organized around three topics that were designed to start participants thinking broadly and end with more focused recommendations. Each session started with a panel discussion, followed by breakout groups (see text box) and reports back to the full assembly.

As the meeting came to a close on July 1, Collman took a few minutes to reflect on the workshop process and to outline the task ahead for the PEPH working group. According to her, over the next several weeks the group will consider the responses to the RFI, now posted online, along with workshop recommendations to prepare the 10-year plan for the new Partnerships for Environmental Public Health program.

Collman said that she found the workshop process to be very productive. As she hoped, she felt that by the end of the workshop the PEPH team was much closer to the goal of developing a comprehensive ten-year plan. She also thanked the PEPH team for their hard work on this initiative and the workshop planners for developing a strong participatory framework to facilitate exchange of ideas and insights among workshop participants.

In her final remarks, Collman talked about her first fifteen years working in environmental public health and searching for the most effective role for NIEHS. She noted that there have been times when the institute’s role and commitment to this area has come into question and said, “In ten years I don’t want it to be a question any more.”

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