Ethics in Public Health -Past and Present-A Closer Look and Discussion (50m Panel Lecture)

Public health policy and actions are influenced by individual and organizational values and principles. More and more organizations and their members are making critical decisions which affect the lives of others based on past ethical study and practices. Environmental Health professionals—from Supervisors to front line Workers—are relying on the ethical problems encountered—and solved from history, best practices and proven processes to help them develop efficient solutions to public health cases.

As public health and environmental health professionals, in management and non-management positions, you are faced with making critical decisions daily. Whether demonstrating sound judgment based on known and expected outcomes, utilizing best practices within the industry, or relying upon expected (but unproven) results, you use critical skills to ensure success within the field.

This lecture and round-table discussion provides a brief overview of past cases within the (public) health field that showed the impacts of ethics (some questionable) during decision-making. We will also discuss ethics in the military and civilian public health and environmental health areas. Finally there will be an opportunity for the audience members to discuss successful and not-so-successful displays of ethics during their current or past engagements within their Public Health and Environmental Health areas.

Flip the Fear: How the FDA, ADA and Lesley University Changed the Face of Public Health and Food Safety in 2013 (50m Panel Lecture)

The momentous changes the last year brought to lives of food safety and public health professionals can be scary. In late 2012, the Mayo Clinic released a study indicating that celiac disease is more serious and common than previously thought. The ADA took these stats seriously when they ruled against Lesley University in Dec. 2012 in a case confirming that food allergy sufferers were covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Under the Agreement, Lesley was required to modify its meal plan and was required to pay compensatory damages of $50,000 per student. Every college and university in the country took notice.

Public schools are on notice as well. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of U.S. children who have food allergies rose by 50 percent from 1997 to 2011, and the federal government's investment in food allergy research has risen from $4 million in 2004 to $31 million today.
The bottom line is this: food safety in today’s public health environment means much more than ensuring the staff has clean hands. It means a careful menu analysis, including reverse ingredient look up, with an eye toward top allergens; identifying recipe changes that allow more gluten-free or allergen-free options; and expanded training on food handling procedures to ensure safe delivery of meals to diners with food allergies, intolerances, or sensitivities.
What do the new regulations require of public health officials in schools and institutions? How is staff trained? Which staff is trained? What new regulations are on the drawing board? Will more legal battles follow after the Lesley University decision?
These are questions that nutrition analysis firms hear every day. At NEHA, the founder of one of these firms can provide answers to the questions, with practical advice to ensure public health officials and personnel are following the letter of the law. Together, a panel will help attendees develop the tools to create a food safety culture – and flip the fear.

101 Ways to Improve Health Equity: IFEH Policy 10 (110m Panel Lecture)

At the last IFEH Conference in Vilnius Policy 10 was approved which aims to improve health equity. The Policy is based on the WHO report of 2008 "Closing the gap in a generation" which set out three principles of action:

1. Improve the conditions of daily life – the circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.
2. Tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money, and resources – the structural drivers of those conditions of daily life – globally, nationally, and locally.
3. Measure the problem, evaluate action, expand the knowledge base, develop a workforce that is trained in the social determinants of health, and raise public awareness about the social determinants of health.

The International Federation for Environmental Health accepts its responsibility for working with others ‘to close the gap in inequities within a generation’. It is important that we set out some practical steps for member organizations to adopt and follow. It is accepted that EHPs across the world have widely differing roles and responsibilities but all have a common objective of working to improve the health of communities. 

IFEH Member Organizations will have members involved in addressing the broad range of issues :

• safer and affordable food,
• future availability of food - food security
• climate change,
• safer water,
• future availability of safe water,
• safer environment and clean air,
• safer workplaces,
• safer and healthy schools,
• improved sanitation
• affordable and healthy housing,
• an absence of fuel poverty
• healthy transport forms
• reduction in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions,
• epidemiology and infectious disease control
• non-communicable and lifestyle disease

The session will illustrate how colleagues around the world are working to Health Policy 10 to make a difference. Postcard type examples will be presented which describe actions that have been taken, what problem they are addressing and what outcomes are being delivered.

The session will give inspiration about what is being achieved by the global environmental family. As we want to expand the richness of contribution we will be asking the audience at the end of the session to make an individual pledge about action they will take to improve health equity locally, nationally or internationally. We will ask them to put the pledge on a message board and to update us on actions before 2016 conference.

Case Studies in Successful International Collaboration (110m Panel Lecture)

The globe is rapidly shrinking and we can look well beyond our city, county, state and national borders to find partners for innovative programs and initiatives. Environmental health leaders, all technical subject matter experts, will share case studies recounting successful collaboration with partners from other nations. These examples include: Sacramento California and Toronto Canada food safety partnership that earned both prestigious Crumbine Awards; IFEH providing CDC developed emergency preparedness training in Australia and Asia; Eastern Kentucky University assisting in the development and delivery of environmental and occupational health instruction in Jamaica as well as the Middle East.

 
NEHA Past-President and IFEH Regional Chair Mel Knight will be moderating a panel of distinguished environmental health leaders from the US, Canada, Jamaica and Australia sharing their real-life success stories of collaboration across borders. Panelists will include the current IFEH and NEHA Presidents, NEHA Technical Advisors, faculty from the University of the West Indies and East Kentucky University, and more.