Betsy Lawton

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in five private wells contain unhealthy levels of contaminants. Concerns over contaminated well water have only intensified given the impact on water quality from the increasing number of natural disasters due to climate change. The current state of private well water quality calls for law and policy interventions, particularly the implementation of laws governing water quality testing for private wells.

While climate change requires mitigation efforts on a global scale, local mitigation and solutions for climate adaptation are equally critical to reduce the negative health outcomes and address the health threats posed by climate change. Attend this webinar to learn how climate change can be integrated into a health department’s core mission and work; and law and policy strategies to mitigate the adverse and inequitable health impacts.

Wetlands absorb and slow floodwaters, help alleviate drought conditions, absorb pollutants, and when left undisturbed, store more carbon than forests. Despite their amazing natural features that help counteract the impacts of climate change, many states currently do not protect wetlands beyond what the Clean Water Act requires, and recently, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated protections for wetlands that have been in place for decades.

By May of 2020, the realities of the inequitable toll of COVID-19 on communities of color became starkly evident, and the murder of George Floyd sparked a renewed movement for racial justice in the United States. During this time, the Network began earnestly exploring how best to respond and be of assistance in a rapidly changing environment. An internal Health Equity Work Group (HEWG) was established to create a space for connection and learning, and to identify ways to collaborate across regions to be responsive to what we were observing and experiencing. One of the early actions identified by the HEWG was to “evaluate what services and supports Network users are interested in” via tools like an environmental scan, stakeholder interviews, and focus groups. This report explores the process that was undertaken to answer that question and the key findings and themes relevant to health and racial equity work across a variety of public health practitioners and organizations.

Wetlands absorb and slow floodwaters, help alleviate drought conditions, absorb pollutants, and when left undisturbed, store more carbon than forests. Despite their amazing natural features that help counteract the impacts of climate change, many states currently do not protect wetlands beyond what the Clean Water Act requires, and recently, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated protections for wetlands that have been in place for decades.

by Overview Since late 2020, many state and local governments have established offices of equity or equivalent entities to prioritize equity in government…

In honor of Black History Month, Network attorneys and staff have highlighted six policies that have the power to reduce health disparities and improve outcomes for Black people and communities of color throughout the United States. This policy brief serves as a practical tool to help public health professionals, leaders, and partners share strategies that can advance, rather than threaten, Black health and wellbeing over the long-term.

The Lancet Countdown’s annual report, “Tracking Progress On Health and Climate Change,” highlights the immediate need for a health-centered response to climate change. Recognizing the need to build a shared understanding of how public health law can and should help mitigate climate change, presenters and attendees at the Network’s first-ever Climate and Health Equity Summit, held in Minneapolis in October, highlighted numerous legal and policy strategies to mitigate climate change and lessen its impacts on human health.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time to remind people of the prevalence of breast cancer, which will impact one in eight U.S. women—a growing number of which are women of color and women under 50 years of age. These realties call for policies that prevent exposure to chemicals linked to increased risk, while simultaneously continuing to support low-cost and convenient early detection methods and life-saving treatment that can address the current racial disparities in relative survival rates and identify breast cancer at earlier, more treatable stages. 

Climate change is a public health threat that has already begun to erode the availability of safe and accessible housing, a critical social determinant of health. Climate-caused extreme weather events, like increased flooding are not experienced equally across all populations; rather, the primary harms are being disproportionately experienced by frontline communities of color and those living in low-income neighborhoods. Health equity requires identifying law and policy solutions that prioritize the needs of communities most vulnerable to climate harms and understanding the role that climate change plays in undermining housing security. Attend this webinar to learn about these topics, which will include a climate-focused lens as well as identifying law and policy approaches to housing affordability and availability. 

This report uses a revised Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) framework put forward by Ruqaiijah Yearby to examine the role of law as a tool to address structural discrimination, with a focus on health impacts across the lifespan. This framework illustrates how law and the systems it interacts with can shape health and well-being and identifies structural discrimination as the root cause of disparities in health outcomes. 

Early on in the pandemic, as the inequitable COVID-19 health outcomes experienced by Black, Hispanic, Latino and Latina, and Indigenous communities were becoming more pronounced, many state and local governments created task forces to address the disproportionate burden of COVID-19 on communities of color and other marginalized populations. The Network analyzed the composition and role of these task forces, the legal mechanisms establishing them, common categories of task force recommendations and top policy recommendations, and opportunities for task forces to translate recommendations into actions that advance health equity.