Public health and brownfields: reviving the past to protect the future

Stakeholders' perspective on strategies to promote contaminated site remediation and brownfield redevelopment in developing countries: empirical evidence from Pakistan

Due to the potential of reducing negative outcomes of brownfields on environment and contribution to urban sustainability, brownfield redevelopment (BR) gained considerable recognition in the more recent era. Comprehensive literature shows that many studies proposed strategies to promote BR in developed nations; however, studies focusing on developing economies are scarce. Therefore, this study intends to identify significant strategies to promote BR in developing countries by taking the case of Pakistan. A comprehensive literature review and expert opinion were commenced to identify potential strategies. Data were collected from the main stakeholders involved in BR process through an empirical questionnaire. The findings revealed that "Low-interest loans and subsidies with the collaboration of government and financial institutions," "Standardized definition, guidelines, and simplified brownfield process," "Development of technical and infrastructure support," "Create investors interest," "Strengthening remediation technologies R&D" were the five most important strategies to promote BR in Pakistan. Theoretically, the novelty of the current study is to highlight the key strategies to promote BR in developing countries. Practically, the study facilitates governments, urban policymakers, environmentalists, and stakeholders to propose and implement appropriate strategies for promoting BR. Future studies can consider modeling the interactions between strategies and their impact on BR adoption.

Environmental equity and health: understanding complexity and moving forward

The authors invoke a population health perspective to assess the distribution of environmental hazards according to race/ethnicity, social class, age, gender, and sexuality and the implications of these hazards for health. The unequal burden of environmental hazards borne by African American, Native American, Latino, and Asian American/Pacific Islander communities and their relationship to well-documented racial/ethnic disparities in health have not been critically examined across all population groups, regions of the United States, and ages. The determinants of existing environmental inequities also require critical research attention. To ensure inclusiveness and fill important gaps, scientific evidence is needed on the health effects of the built environment as well as the natural environment, cities and suburbs as well as rural areas, and indoor as well as outdoor pollutants.

Uncovering the historic environmental hazards of urban brownfields

In Baltimore, over 1,000 vacant industrial sites persist across its urban landscape, yet little is known about the potential environmental health risks that may undermine future cleanup and redevelopment activities and the health of those in communities near these sites. This study examined the characteristics of urban brownfield properties in southeast Baltimore, Maryland, and screened sites for their potential environmental hazards. In addition, demographic and health data were evaluated to profile the social and health status of those in brownfield communities. The results show that brownfields in southeast Baltimore represent a range of historic operations, including metal smelting, oil refining, warehousing, and transportation, as well as paints, plastics, and metals manufacturing. The screening method identified a range of substances associated with these properties, including heavy metals, chlorinated hydrocarbons, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, all of which are suspected or recognized toxicants, and many of which are persistent in the environment. Spatially, these sites are concentrated in white, working class neighborhoods in which poverty levels exceed and educational attainment lags behind state and national averages. Moreover, these sites are concentrated in communities in which excess mortality rates due to respiratory disease, cancer, and heart disease exist when compared to the city, state, and national averages. This investigation demonstrated the usefulness of historic archives, real estate records, regulatory files, and national hazard-tracking systems based on standard industrial classification (SIC) to screen brownfield properties for their hazard potential. This analysis provides the foundation for further site monitoring and testing, cleanup and redevelopment priority setting, risk management strategies, and neighborhood planning, and it illustrates the need for increased health surveillance and disease prevention strategies in affected communities.

Examining urban brownfields through the public health "macroscope"

Efforts to cope with the legacy of our industrial cities--blight, poverty, environmental degradation, ailing communities--have galvanized action across the public and private sectors to move vacant industrial land, also referred to as brownfields, to productive use; to curb sprawling development outside urban areas; and to reinvigorate urban communities. Such efforts, however, may be proceeding without thorough investigations into the environmental health and safety risks associated with industrial brownfields properties and the needs of affected neighborhoods. We describe an approach to characterize vacant and underused industrial and commercial properties in Southeast Baltimore and the health and well being of communities living near these properties. The screening algorithm developed to score and rank properties in Southeast Baltimore (n= 182) showed that these sites are not benign. The historical data revealed a range of hazardous operations, including metal smelting, oil refining, warehousing, and transportation, as well as paints, plastics, and metals manufacturing. The data also identified hazardous substances linked to these properties, including heavy metals, solvents, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, plasticizers, and insecticides, all of which are suspected or recognized toxicants and many of which are persistent in the environment. The health analysis revealed disparities across Southeast Baltimore communities, including excess deaths from respiratory illness (lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, influenza, and pneumonia), total cancers, and a "leading cause of death" index and a spatial and statistical relationship between environmentally degraded brownfields areas and at-risk communities. Brownfields redevelopment is a key component of our national efforts to address environmental justice and health disparities across urban communities and is critical to urban revitalization. Incorporating public health into brownfields-related cleanup and land-use decisions will increase the odds for successful neighborhood redevelopment and long-term public health benefits.

Is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency brownfields assessment pilot program environmentally just?

In the early 1990s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) started a grant program to assist communities redevelop brownfields, which are abandoned or underutilized sites that have real or perceived contamination. In addition to determining if the communities receiving the grants were the most distressed cities in the United States, we also evaluate the U.S. EPA program in terms of environmental justice at the macro scale. Using 1990 U.S. Census of Housing and Population data and a matched-cities methodology, we compared the brownfields pilot cities to other communities in the United States. We found that regardless of intent, the U.S. EPA program is environmentally just by disproportionately awarding grants to the most economically distressed cities. We also found that the cities that received funding in the early years of the program were more economically distressed than cities receiving the funding more recently.

Urban air pollution and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a review

There is consistency in the findings that relate the acute increases in urban air pollution (mainly the particulate matter) and the short-term health effects (i.e. mortality and hospital admissions) on patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Beyond the acute effects, a relevant public health and scientific question is to what extent chronic exposure to air pollution is related with lung function impairment and development of COPD. The few cross-sectional studies showed an increase of self-reported diagnosis of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, breathlessness and mucus hypersecretion and lower levels of lung function in the more polluted areas. The two cohort studies in children have found a retardation of pulmonary function growth, and the only cohort in adults a faster decline of lung function. Given the intrinsic limitations of cross-sectional studies to separate the timing between exposure and effects, and the weaknesses of the cohorts (ie. few areas, short follow-up, only one retest, lack of individual weighting of air pollution measure) there is a need for new prospective studies. These should be performed in a large number of geographical areas and with a long follow-up to asses the impact of long-term air pollution on lung function growth and decline, and on incidence, duration, severity and survival of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Epidemiology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of world-wide mortality and disability. On average approximately 5-15% of adults in industrialized countries have COPD defined by spirometry. In 1990, COPD was considered to be at the twelfth position world-wide as a cause of combined mortality and disability but is expected to become the fifth cause by the year 2020. COPD has a chronic long-lasting course characterized by irreversible decline of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), increasing presence of dyspnoea and other respiratory symptoms, and progressive deterioration of health status. After diagnosis the 10-yr survival rate is approximately 50% with more than one-third of patients dying due to respiratory insufficiency. Several environmental exposures such as air pollution increase the risk of death in COPD patients. The aetiology of COPD is overwhelmingly dominated by smoking although many other factors could play a role. Particular genetic variants are likely to increase the susceptibility to environmental factors although little is known about which are the relevant genes. There is clear evidence about the role of the alpha-1-antitrypsin but the fraction of COPD attributable to the relevant variants is only 1%. Phenotypic traits that are considered to play a role in the development of COPD include sex, with females being at a higher risk, bronchial responsiveness and atopy. There is strong causal evidence regarding the relationship between smoking and COPD with decline in FEVI levelling off after smoking cessation. Passive smoking has been found to be associated with a small though statistically significant decline in FEV1. Other risk factors that are likely to be relevant in the development of COPD are occupation, low socioeconomic status, diet and possibly some environmental exposures in early life. Although there is accumulating evidence that oxygen therapy, pharmacological treatment and rehabilitation may improve the course of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, preventing smoking continues to be the most relevant measure, not only to prevent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but also to arrest its development.

Earth Day plus 30 years: public concern and support for environmental health

A clear majority of Americans are concerned about environmental threats to public health and do not want to weaken antipollution regulations. The strongest supporters for maintaining environmental regulations are affluent mainstream White suburban populations who are thriving economically, but support is also strong in every other major segment of the population. Overt attempts to weaken the basic regulations are unlikely, barring an obvious economic downturn that would cause a large proportion of the public to consider loosening standards in the belief that such changes would increase the number of available jobs. Given this context, environmental health was and will continue to be a core topic in the Journal. We will emphasize the nexus of environmental health and policy by publishing research, exemplary public health practice, and the views of key decision makers.