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The 10 essential services of environmental health, which are based on the 10 essential public health services, can guide environmental health practitioners in systematically organizing and managing environmental public health programs and activities. The National Center for Environmental Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has used the 10 essential services of environmental health as a basis for its six goals for the revitalization of environmental health in the 21st century. Nevertheless, studies indicate that very few environmental health practitioners are aware of the 10 essential services. This article discusses how essential-services training has increased the awareness and knowledge of environmental health practitioners about the development, value, and use of the essential services. Examples of training outcomes are offered to illustrate how the use of the essential-services framework has improved environmental health performance and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews nine of the best-known strategies for eliminating and reducing substances in the category known as "persistent bioaccumulative toxic substances" (PBTSs). The nine strategies are as follows: 1) Ontario's Candidate Substances list for Bans and Phase-outs (1992), 2) Canada's ARET Program (1994), 3) Canada's Toxic Substances Management Policy (1995), 4) the Commission for Environmental Cooperation's Sound Management of Chemicals Initiative (1995), 5) the Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy (1997), 6) the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (U.S. EPA's) draft National PBT Strategy (1998), 7) U.S. EPA's Waste Minimization Program (1998), 8) the U.N. Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (2001), and 9) Washington State's Rule on Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxins (2006). The review describes the commonalities among the strategies, including their goals and principles, design approaches, and other common elements. It also discusses several emerging trends, such as the increasing importance of economic considerations, human health information, and nonregulatory management approaches. The paper concludes with a discussion of how effective the strategies have been at achieving their goals of elimination and reduction of persistent bioaccumulative toxic substances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interests of First Nations communities m Canada have traditionally had little voice at the various points of authority that maintain the equilibrium or balance necessary to get environmental protection laws ratified, regulations distributed, and enforcement actions initiated on First Nations lands. (First Nations is the term commonly used in Canada to describe the various societies of indigenous peoples who are accorded status as "Indians" by the Indian Act of 1985 and who are not of Inuit or Métis descent.) Along with a lack of adequate funding to address human and environmental issues — as well as past industrial exploitation of First Nations lands — the safety and acceptability of many solid waste management practices in Canadian First Nations communities have become a serious concern for many members from both human and environmental health perspectives. A history of poor management, monitoring, and remediation of solid waste facilities across Canada's First Nations Communities and the lack of current resolve over this issue has left First Nations people feeling the consequences of pollution to their environment: rivers, land, and air. First Nations people are traditionally connected to the land, and consequently the degradation of the environment also leads to a decline in a way of life for the people and thus a decline in the cultural health of communities. This article examines the issues surrounding waste management on First Nations communities, looks at how First Nations are trying to handle their solid waste, and considers the larger issues of environmental degradation that First Nations communities face throughout Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the environmental health protection issues in New Zealand and compares the environemtal law in the country with that in the U.S. The Environmental Performance Index ranked New Zealand first out of 133 countries in the areas of health, biodiversity, energy, water, air, and natural resources, in an announcement at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in January 2006 in Davos, Switzerland. With 78.5/100 points, the U.S. ranked 28th. Demand for water for all purposes is increasing in New Zealand. The current pressures on freshwater ecosystems are less severe in New Zealand than those in many other industrialized countries. As the 1986 New Zealand Environment Act establishes the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment and its associated minister, it roughly corresponds to the 1969 U.S. National Environmental Policy Act.

This article informs that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is initiating the Drinking Water Lead Reduction Plan to strengthen, update, and clarify existing requirements for water utilities and slates to test for and reduce lead in drinking water. In 1991, to reduce lead in drinking water, U.S. EPA issued the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR). The LCR requires water utilities to reduce lead contamination by controlling the corrosiveness of water, and, as needed, replace lead service lines used to carry water from the street to the home.

This article presents news related to environmental health. The National Environmental Services Center provides information about drinking water, wastewater, environmental training, and solid waste management in communities serving fewer than 10,000 individuals. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Pesticides Program works on a wide range of pesticide issues and topics, evaluating potential new pesticides and uses, providing for special local needs and emergency situations, reviewing the safety of older pesticides, registering pesticide-producing establishments, and enforcing pesticide requirements. Its Web site features information on mosquito control and West Nile virus, human health and environmental assessments, the control of pests, regulating pesticides, compliance and enforcement, grants and partnerships, and science and policy. The second site listed above is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pesticide Data Program, a national pesticide residue database program.

This article reports that EnviroMapper for Water is a Web-based geographic information system application and mapping interface to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency geospatial data. It dynamically displays information about bodies of water in the United States. More specifically, EnviroMapper for Water allows users to view different sets of map feature layers at national, regional, state, and local levels. It enables user control of the map including the display of multiple feature layers; identification and labeling of features; zooming; panning; and display of descriptive information for a specific location.

This article presents information about the availability of various resources on GIS in NEHA Bookstore. The book "Managing Natural Resources With GIS," by Laura Lang addresses natural-resource management. Some of the case studies involve the Oregon Department of Forestry, Chevron Corporation, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The book "Spatial Analysis, GIS, and Remote Sensing Applications in the Health Sciences," edited by Donald P. Albert, Wilbert M. Gésier, and Barbara Levergood is an expression of the myriad ways in which the range of geospatial methods and technologies can be applied to the analysis of human health-related issues.

This article focuses on various upcoming conferences and other related events. Indiana Environmental Health Association's Annual Fall Conference will be held from September 27-29, 2004 in Indiana. The ninth Annual New Mexico Environmental Health Conference will be held from October 18-20, 2004 at Sheraton Old Town Hotel in Albuquerque. UEHA Fall Conference will be held from September 29-October 1, 2004 at Davis County Convention Center. China International Environmental Protection Fair will be held from September 2-4, 2004.