Oral

One of the biggest challenges facing the field of environmental health is the limited understanding of environmental health concepts and issues among the public, policy makers, and other health professionals. There is a need to develop innovative and effective methods for improving environmental health literacy. The first two presentations will describe and discuss recommendations from the 2007 "National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment: Integrating Environment and Human Health," for integrating environment and health in science, education, policy and practice. The following three presentations will describe innovative approaches to improving public understanding of environmental health problems: environmental health information in television drama storylines, an academically based community outreach and education center serving the public and policy makers, and teaching the social determinants in an environmental justice curriculum.

Session Objectives: 1. Discuss strategies for integrating concepts about the environment and human health into education, policy and practice. 2. Describe the process of collaborating with the entertainment industry to include and ensure the accuracy of environmental health information in television broadcasts. 3. Give examples of and describe methods for providing accurate and usable environmental health information to community members and policy makers.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing