Environmental Health
GSMA working to protect our resources, our future, our planet.
Climate change is one of the most important issues of our time and has major health and healthcare implications. As some of the most respected professionals in America, doctors have a critical role to play in raising the awareness of the public about these issues. To facilitate the medical community’s awareness-raising efforts, the Georgia State Medical Association partners with other organizations to vocalize the following key messages:
Climate change is harming our health now and these harms will increase unless we act;
The way to slow or stop these harms is to decrease the use of fossil fuels and increase energy efficiency and use of clean energy sources; and
These changes in energy choices will improve the quality of our air and water and bring immediate health benefits. This is especially important to vulnerable populations (elderly, children, pregnant women, some minorities) and frontline communities who are experiencing a disproportionate impact today from climate change.
The 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change concluded that addressing climate change is the greatest public health opportunity of the 21st century, and failure to adequately address it could undo most of the progress in global health over the past century. Surveys demonstrate that most physicians are aware of the adverse health effects of climate change and feel a responsibility to inform the public, patients, and policymakers about them. A majority of our members report they are seeing health harms from climate change among their own patients – most commonly in the form of increased cardiorespiratory disease (related to air quality and heat), more severe and longer-lasting allergy symptoms, and injuries attributed to extreme heat. Many indicated their own personal interest and nearly all indicated they are willing to educate policymakers about these harms and risks. GSMA members also support education for their colleagues through CME and wish to provide leadership on environmental sustainability in their own workplaces, and the communities in which they live, work, worship, learn, and play.
Cleanups in My Community
EPA Mapping and Data Tools
The Environmental Justice Funding map highlights EPA’s environmental justice grant support to communities as they develop and implement solutions that significantly address local environmental and/or public health concerns.
EJSCREEN is the environmental justice screening tool used by EPA to provide a nationally consistent dataset and methodology for calculating “EJ indexes,” which highlight places that may be candidates for further review. The tool offers a variety of powerful data and mapping capabilities that enable users to access environmental and demographic information, at high geographic resolution, across the entire country. EJSCREEN is now available as a mobile app.
The Cleanups in My Community enables you to map and list hazardous waste cleanup locations and grant areas, and drill down to details about those cleanups and grants and other related information.
Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) – Use EPA’s ECHO website to search for facilities in your community to assess their compliance with environmental regulations. You can also investigate pollution sources, examine and create enforcement-related maps, or explore your state’s performance.
Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) – C-FERST builds upon other community-focused tools and provides state-of-the-science approaches for characterizing community exposures to environmental contaminants that lead to cumulative risks. These tools include information, strategies, human exposure models, databases, sampling/analytical methods, GIS maps, and web applications.
My Environment – The MyEnvironment search application is designed to provide a cross-section of environmental information based on the user’s location.
AirData – AirData gives you access to air quality data collected at outdoor monitors across the United States. This tool will help you better understand air quality in your community. Other sources of air data also are available.
National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) – NATA is EPA’s ongoing comprehensive evaluation of air toxics in the U.S. EPA developed the NATA as a state-of-the-science screening tool for State/Local/Tribal Agencies to prioritize pollutants, emission sources and locations of interest for further study in order to gain a better understanding of risks.
Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program – provides communities with information about toxic chemical releases and waste management activities and to inform industry, government, non-government and the public on chemical releases. You can search by zip code for a report of TRI chemical releases in your neighborhood.