Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

Abstract #160514

• Slides (pdf) or Handout

A. Stanley Meiburg, PhD, National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, NE, MS E-28, Atlanta, GA 30333, (404) 498-0825, SMeiburg@cdc.gov

As part of the panel on New Support for Community-Based Environmental Health Initiatives, this presentation will discuss the vital role EPA Regional offices can play in enabling collaborations to succeed. Following a brief introduction of how EPA Regional offices are structured and their role within EPA, the presentation will discuss how Regional offices can bring critical resources to the table, including technical expertise, information on environmental conditions and standards, relationships with State regulators, skills as convenors and facilitators, and in some cases limited “seed money”. Regional offices can help mediate the tension that exists between the imperatives of sensitivity to local conditions and the need to adhere to nationally consistent standards—a tension which has been described as “the paradox of environmental protection”. Regional offices can work with other Federal, State and local government agencies and with private sector and nongovernmental partners to pool resources and address community concerns which are beyond the scope of EPA's authorities. Similarly, the collaboration with other organizations such as CDC and associations of State and local environmental and public health officials is essential to EPA Regions in determining how to achieve progress toward environmental goals in particular communities and measuring whether progress is actually being achieved. Finally, EPA Regions can in appropriate situations deploy the regulatory tools of permitting and enforcement available to EPA.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the role of EPA Regional Offices in environmental protection.
• Recognize how collaboration with EPA Regional Offices can benefit community environmental health activities.
• Evaluate opportunities for stronger community environmental health collaborations involving EPA Regional offices.

Keywords: Community Collaboration, Environmental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

• Slides (pdf) or Handout