A Partnership with Promise: Using a Collaborative, Community-Based Approach to Reduce Exposure to Toxics in Spokane County

Environmental Health Assessment:  In 2007, The Lands Council, with funding from the Spokane Regional Health District, facilitated a year-long, dynamic, and collaborative environmental health assessment process. A multi-stakeholder team consisting of government agencies, business, industry, neighborhood groups, non-profits, academic institutions, health care providers, and local citizens met monthly and used the PACE-EH methodology to identify, research, rank, and prioritize top environmental health concerns in Spokane County. The two issues receiving the highest number of votes were lead and how the "built environment" (i.e. human-made buildings and infrastructure) affects people's health. Other environmental health issues receiving votes included outdoor air quality, mold, dioxins, and use of carbon monoxide detectors.

Community Surveys:  The team also surveyed the general population in order to gather similar information. Two surveys were administered, a phone survey and a community survey. The phone survey included 400 respondents, age 18 and over and residing in Spokane County. The community survey was administered by the Spokane Regional Health District. Thirty questionnaires were delivered to each of the local community groups for distribution and completion during regularly-scheduled community meetings. A response rate of 50% was received from just over half of the community groups. Land use, surface water quality, and outdoor air quality were top issues of concern raised by participants in the phone survey, while community survey respondents ranked land use, urban design, and toxins as some of their top issues of concern. Note that these findings are largely consistent with those of the multi-stakeholder team.

Action Plan:  On September 30th, 2009 we completed the action phase of our environmental health assessment, and a 2-year EPA CARE (Community Action for a Renewed Environment) grant awarded to The Lands Council in October, 2007 allowed us to do so. CARE grants aid communities in building sustainable, collaborative, problem-solving partnerships to reduce toxic risks. We created community partnerships that developed and implemented collective action plans to reduce the toxic risks of lead in Spokane County (including the City of Spokane), and enhance people's physical health by working to improve our community's built environment.

News:

• See what our lead community team did for National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week
• Click here for a PowerPoint presentation explaining our CARE process, which we delivered at the recent Community Environmental Health Assessment (CEHA) Workshop in Yakima
• In July 2008 The Lands Council's Environmental Health Staff attended a Health Impact Assessment Training hosted by the San Francisco Department of Public Health - click here for more information about Health Impact Assessment
• Spokane County Environmental Health Assessment Team (EHAT): Check out the EHAT 2007 Final Report

Contact: Kat Hall, Environmental Health Program Director at khall@landscouncil.org, 509-209-2403 or Nicole Powell, Environmental Health Program Assistant at npowell@landscouncil.org, 509-209-2404.