Lili Farhang, MPH¹, June M. Weintraub, ScD², Carolina Guzman, MPH¹, and Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH¹. (1) Program on Health, Equity and Sustainability, San Francisco Department of Public Health, 1390 Market St., Suite 822, San Francisco, CA 94102, (2) Environmental Health Section, San Francisco Department of Public Health, 1390 Market St., Suite 910, San Francisco, CA 94102, 415-252-3973, June.Weintraub@sfdph.org

Given the growing understanding of how the built environment influences health determinants such as physical activity, income, housing, food quality, social support, and stress, the public health community must find new ways to participate in land use planning and policy arenas. Though resting outside public health’s current institutional domain, this participation can be accomplished through health impact assessment and analysis, applied in the context of environmental laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act, through conducting health impact assessment as an independent public health agency activity, and through collaboration with community organizations and planning agencies.

The SFDPH Program on Health, Equity and Sustainability (PHES), established to institutionalize a public health role in urban planning, applies research, policy analysis, technical support and collaboration to make transparent the health impacts of land use projects and policy-making. Using the mandate of the California Environmental Quality Act, the tools of health and social impact assessment, and partnership between public health practitioners, community advocates and urban planners, PHES promotes consideration of health in the design, review and approval of development and planning projects. For example, we are participating with community advocates and city planners on a health impact assessment of city re-zoning proposals as well as conducting research on displacement of low-income residents to highlight the effects of market-rate housing proposals in San Francisco. This case study will illustrate the methods in which public health departments can incorporate and put into practice a framework that regards built environment features as central determinants of health.

Learning Objectives:

• 3. Identify tools to incorporate built environment analysis into public health practice.
  7. Assess where in the process of land use decision-making that health practitioners can become involved.
  11. Examine the contribution of a local health department in the development of land use planning and policy-making.
  15. Identify and discuss barriers and strategies for gaining legitimacy and support for this work within a local public health department context.

Related Web page: www.dph.sf.ca.us/ehs/phesmain.htm

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: I am an employee of the San Francisco Department of Public Health