Improving Indoor Environmental Quality for Public Health: Impediments and Policy Recommendations

Improving Indoor Environmental Quality for Public Health: Impediments and Policy Recommendations

BACKGROUND People in modern societies spend more than 90% of their time indoors. Hence, indoor environmental quality (IEQ) has a significant impact on public health. In this article we describe health risks associated with indoor environments, illuminate barriers to overcoming these risks, and provide policy recommendations to achieve healthier indoor environments. OBJECTIVES The weight of ev...

Public health programme and policy options for improving health equitably.

Compared with other Western European countries, Scotland has the highest mortality rate and lowest life expectancy. Scotland is also characterised by marked inequalities, with men from the poorest communities dying 13 years earlier and experiencing seven more years in poor health than men from the most affluent communities. 1 Similarly, women from Scotland's poorest communities die nine years e...

Air quality measures and public health policy.

Policy and environmental change: new directions for public health.

Solving major, persistent public health problems requires new policies and more aggressive, sweeping interventions that affect large populations. We need well-conceived health policies and effective interventions for environmental change, but are we likely to get them? To find out, the Directors of Health Promotion and Education and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiated ...

The Environmental Public Health Performance Standards: strengthening the nation's environmental public health infrastructure and improving environmental health practice.

Editor’s note: NEHA strives to provide up-to-date and relevant information on environmental health and to build part­ nerships in the profession. In pursuit of these goals, we feature a column from the Environmental Health Services Branch (EHSB) of the Centers for Disease Con­ trol and Prevention (CDC) in every issue of the Journal. In this column, EHSB and guest au­ thors from across CDC will ...