When the construction of the Lyon-Turin segment of the new European high-speed rail network was first publicly announced at the beginning of the 1990 s, it immediately found fierce opposition from the inhabitants of Susa Valley, Italy, one of the areas to be cut across by such infrastructure. At issue were the project's potential environmental impact and its consequences on public health. This ...

BACKGROUND Providing food through schools has well documented effects in terms of the education, health and nutrition of school children. However, there is limited evidence in terms of the benefits of providing a reliable market for small-holder farmers through "home-grown" school feeding approaches. This study aims to evaluate the impact of school feeding programmes sourced from small-holder f...

Third party policing’ describes police efforts to persuade or coerce third parties, such as landlords, parents, local governments and other regulators, and business owners, to take some responsibility for preventing crime or reducing crime problems. In third party policing, the police create crime control guardians in locations or situations where crime control guardianship was previously absen...

BackgroundIn this paper we examine the role of collective action in assisting rural communities to cope with and adapt to environmental risks in Nepalgunj, Nepal and Krabi Province, Thailand. Drawing upon two case studies, we explore the role of collective action in building adaptive capacity, paying particular attention to the role of social networks.MethodsData for this paper was gathered usi...

Health protection involves the prevention and control of threats to health from communicable diseases and the environment. In New South Wales (NSW) in 2012 these functions were carried out by a range of groups, among them Health Protection NSW’s Communicable Diseases and Environmental Health Branches, the NSW Ministry of Health’s Population and Public Health Division, Public HealthUnits, clinic...

Reliable estimates of the impacts and costs of biological invasions are critical to developing credible management, trade and regulatory policies. Worldwide, forests and urban trees provide important ecosystem services as well as economic and social benefits, but are threatened by non-native insects. More than 450 non-native forest insects are established in the United States but estimates of b...

The ability to make healthy choices is influenced by where one lives, works, shops, and plays. Locally enacted policies and standards can influence these surroundings but little is known about the prevalence of such policies and standards that support healthier behaviors. In this paper, we describe the development of a survey questionnaire designed to capture local level policy supports for hea...

OBJECTIVES A cross-sectional investigation was designed to assess the quality of local government plans for public health emergencies and to determine whether relevant regulations for emergency plans are in place. METHODS Sixty-six municipalities were selected randomly using stratified sampling, and a questionnaire investigation on emergency plans was conducted in these municipalities. RESU...

BACKGROUND Finding ways to improve the cervical cancer screening rates among young women has been seen as a critical national health problem in many countries, including Japan. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a free-coupon program for cervical cancer screening conducted by a local government under financial support from the Japanese national government. METHODS The...

Local governments play a critical role in delivering services to the public. Over recent decades scholars have begun to empirically examine the relationship between the management and performance of local governments, locating this in economic, contingency and resource-based theoretical frameworks. In this study, we undertake a comprehensive assessment of what is currently known about the manag...