Environmental Health

Health Resources in Action’s Environmental Health department was created to integrate several successful, long-term projects into a comprehensive Healthy Homes/Healthy Places approach aimed at improving the health status of low-income individuals living in urban environments in Boston and across New England, as well as throughout the country. This approach focuses on a range of environmentally-based public health challenges found in the home and in communities at-large, and seeks to promote policies and practices that remedy the causes and effects of environmental health hazards.

The Environmental Health department currently includes the following programs:

• Asthma Regional Council : A coalition of nearly 75 governmental, academic, community and health organizations across New England that seeks to tackle environmental contributors to pediatric and adult asthma, with particular attention to the environmental contributors to asthma and its disproportionate impact on the low income and minority populations at greatest risk
• Boston Urban Asthma Coalition: A community-based coalition which advocates for a comprehensive and coordinated approach to asthma control in Boston by focusing on citywide environmental and health improvements. Increasing community awareness and education about the issue of asthma and developing community leadership are key elements to the work of BUAC.
• Lead Action Collaborative: A community-based coalition which seeks to address the problems of lead poisoning and elevated blood lead levels among children in Boston.
• Massachusetts Asthma Action Project: An advocacy group which seeks to reduce asthma health disparities in the Commonwealth by coordinating statewide advocacy efforts.
• The Smoke-Free Families Initiative: Seeks to increase demand for smoke-free housing in the Commonwealth and to educate the public about the impact of secondhand smoke on health and wellness.