Earlier this morning, I had the privilege of accepting an invitation to do a 20-minute lecture at the National Environmental Health Association’s 2018 Annual Educational Conference and HUD Healthy Homes Conference.  The timing is quite ironic. My presentation will be entitled: “Why should you care about building codes”, and it aims to increase awareness and participation of environmental health practitioners in the code development process for building codes.  The reason that I say it is ironic timing is that later the same day that I accepted the offer, HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) published an article in their free journal, PD&R Edge, entitled Building Codes: the role they can play.  Although the article isn’t necessarily targeting health impacts, it shows that policymakers are now starting to provide more focus on the built environment than they historically have.

For a community like Needham, an understanding of the inter-relationship between how structures are built / the standards with which they need to comply is very important; as density is slowly increasing, and developers are building residential complexes adjacent to heavily travelled highways.  We need to continue our progressive public health policies in order to ensure that the residents of these facilities, as well as those people working in buildings in the growing industrial area, are not exposed to potentially dangerous concentrations of certain environmental toxins and toxicants.

My understanding of both the science and the practical application(s) of the research can lead to more informed policy-making by the Board of Health.  If elected to the Board of Health, I will reach out to my colleagues on the Board of Health, Board of Selectmen, and the Planning Board to discuss the risks associated with this development, and try to identify pathways to continue protection the occupants of these structures.