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Open Access
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
A New Year Brings New Opportunities (and Challenges)
Tom Butts, MSc, REHS
A s you read this column, we are start- ing a new calendar year and per- haps a new budget or fiscal year as well. The optimist in me hopes that you and your agencies were successful in navigating budget preparation and approval processes. Hopefully, the financial support for your environmental public health programs and activities reflects the importance of those activities to the health of your community. The important services and programs that are part of our scope of work must have strong financial support (e.g., fees for ser- vice, general funds, grants) as well as sys- tems and software to support operations and allow for evaluation. I hope the vision statement of the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA)—healthy environments, protected communities, empowered professionals—is aligned with the vision of your agency. I also hope that the NEHA mission to build, sus- tain, and empower an e ective environmen- tal health workforce translates to resources, opportunities, and perhaps even funding for your organizations. Having the techni- cal skills to do our important work, as well as the communication skills to continually make the case for that work, is important. I hope you can draw on a strong peer network from your community and state, or even via national organizations such as NEHA, to support your work. During 2023 I have connected with many environmental public health practitioners at a liate conferences and the NEHA Annual Educational Conference & Exhibition. I am
ing at our work from that perspective. There are numerous quips, such as work smarter not harder, that could have been embraced in service to that directive. In action, what these guidelines meant was that as the regulatory systems we worked in came up for review or reauthorization, there was a focus on working with industry to identify where changes could be made to reduce unnecessary or ine ective elements. This focus was not about deregulation but about regulating in equally or more e ective ways that were better aligned with reaching regulatory goals in more a straightforward manner. Can regulation be elegant? Perhaps sometimes, but it can certainly be done more e ciently. We now have more tools and opportuni- ties than ever to bring together information and characteristics about our communities, businesses, and industries as we work to improve health outcomes and environmen- tal conditions. Collecting and using data e ectively are crucial for both public health and environ- mental health initiatives. Here are some thoughts about some of the ways to improve data collection and use in local communities. These ideas can be scalable based on your program needs. • Sensor Networks: Deploy sensor networks to monitor air quality, water quality, noise levels, and other environmental parameters. These sensors can provide real-time data and trigger alerts when thresholds are crossed. • GIS: Integrate environmental data into GIS platforms to visualize spatial relationships
We now have more tools and opportunities than ever to bring together information and characteristics to improve health outcomes and environmental conditions.
encouraged to see innovation in how duties are approached and openness to the use of new—but not unproven or unreliable—tech- nology to help respond to community con- ditions and site-specific concerns. I am also disappointed at times that the system that supports our work does not always do so in e ective, e cient, or elegant ways. Many years ago, former Colorado Gov- ernor John Hickenlooper gave three guide- lines to the various agencies and regulatory bodies in the state as they reexamined the existing rules: Be e cient, be e ective, and be elegant (3Es). As a local environmental health leader who was not directly required to abide by this call, I saw the value of look-
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Volume 86 • Number 6
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