Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities [Hardcover]

Howard Frumkin (Author), Lawrence Frank (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 2004

In Urban Sprawl and Public Health, Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank, and Richard Jackson, three of the nation's leading public health and urban planning experts explore an intriguing question: How does the physical environment in which we live affect our health? For decades, growth and development in our communities has been of the low-density, automobile-dependent type known as sprawl. The authors examine the direct and indirect impacts of sprawl on human health and well-being, and discuss the prospects for improving public health through alternative approaches to design, land use, and transportation.

Urban Sprawl and Public Health offers a comprehensive look at the interface of urban planning, architecture, transportation, community design, and public health. It summarizes the evidence linking adverse health outcomes with sprawling development, and outlines the complex challenges of developing policy that promotes and protects public health. Anyone concerned with issues of public health, urban planning, transportation, architecture, or the environment will want to read Urban Sprawl and Public Health.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Urban Sprawl and Public Health is written for urban planners, public health practitioners, and the general public.

 

The authors acknowledge that Smart Growth initatives face barriers, such as market preferences for suburbs, but point out that solutions to these issues will require input from many sectors in society, including health professionals, planners and develpers. Yet Frumkin et al. also argue that there is a need for citizens to take greater responsibility for their personal daily activities and to have a healthy lifestyle.

 

Overall, the authors provide a well-informed discussion on urban planning and health issues and present feasible public health solutions that may be incorporated into many urban development projects."

(Gary Christopher Canadian Journal of Urban Research 20070106)

"Years ago, we could see that the correlation between sprawl and poor health should be made. Now it is done. Urban Sprawl and Public Health details how our lifestyle leads to serious health problems. This book should be reviewed widely and its facts should be known by all of us. It will be one of the central texts of the New Urbanism."

(Andres Duany, author of Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream )

About the Author

HOWARD FRUMKIN is professor and chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. LAWRENCE FRANK is Bombardier Chair in Sustainable Transportation Systems at the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia. RICHARD JACKSON is state public health officer at the California Department of Health Services.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 364 pages
• Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (July 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559639121
• ISBN-13: 978-1559639125
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,320,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

HOWARD FRUMKIN, M.D., Dr.P.H.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Howard Frumkin is Dean of the University of Washington School of Public Health. From 2005 to 2010, he was at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, first as Director of the National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR), and later as Special Assistant to the Director for Climate Change and Health. Under Dr. Frumkin's directorship, CDC launched its programs in Climate Change and in Healthy Community Design, strengthened and expanded its laboratory biomonitoring program, began environmental health training programs for undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral students, and launched a National Conversation on Chemical Exposures and Public Health, designed to update and strengthen the nation's public health strategies regarding toxic chemical exposures. Before joining CDC he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Emory Medical School.

Dr. Frumkin currently serves on the Boards of the Bullitt Foundation, the Children and Nature Network, the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute, and the U.S. Green Building Council, on the National Research Council Committee on Sustainability Linkages in the Federal Government, on the Executive Committee for the Regional Open Space Strategy for Central Puget Sound, on the Yale Climate and Energy Institute External Advisory Board, on Procter & Gamble's Sustainability Expert Advisory Panel, and on the Advisory Board for the National Sustainable Communities Coalition. He previously served on the Board of Directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), where he co-chaired the Environment Committee; as president of the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC); as chair of the Science Board of the American Public Health Association (APHA); on the National Toxicology Program Board of Scientific Counselors; and on the Board of the National Environmental Education Foundation. As a member of EPA's Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, he chaired the Smart Growth and Climate Change work groups. A graduate of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership, he was named Environmental Professional of the Year by the Georgia Environmental Council in 2004. His research interests include public health aspects of the built environment, climate change, energy policy, and nature contact; toxic effects of chemicals; and environmental health policy. He is the author or co-author of over 200 scientific journal articles and chapters, and his books include Urban Sprawl and Public Health (Island Press, 2004, co-authored with Larry Frank and Dick Jackson; named a Top Ten Book of 2005 by Planetizen, the Planning and Development Network), Emerging Illness and Society (Johns Hopkins Press, 2004, co-edited with Randall Packard, Peter Brown, and Ruth Berkelman), Environmental Health: From Global to Local (Jossey-Bass, 2005 and 2010), Safe and Healthy School Environments (Oxford University Press, 2006, co-edited with Leslie Rubin and Robert Geller), Green Healthcare Institutions: Health, Environment, Economics (National Academies Press, 2007, co-edited with Christine Coussens), and Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-Being, and Sustainability (Island Press, 2011, co-edited with Andrew Dannenberg and Dick Jackson).

Dr. Frumkin received his A.B. from Brown University, his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, his M.P.H. and Dr.P.H. from Harvard, his Internal Medicine training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Cambridge Hospital, and his Occupational Medicine training at Harvard. He is Board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Occupational Medicine, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Collegium Ramazzini, and the Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The dis ease of living in the US, July 27, 2005

By 

Howard W. Mielke (New Orleans, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities (Paperback)

The costs of sprawl are enormous. This book describes the costs in terms of many different types of public health measurements. If you haven 't thought about sprawl, this is a good place to start. It is chilling to think about how many physical, emotional, psychological and medical ramifications there are to the US automobile lifestyle. The price to degradation of the planet was not discussed in depth but that too would make you think about our legacy of our lifestyle to the quality of our planet for future generations. I am encouraged that the topic is being developed. The automobile lifestyle is addictive and to change it will require a paradigm shift. The shift starts with organized discussions and lucidly presented data. This book is excellent on both accounts.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars reasonably well done, February 4, 2005

By 

Michael Lewyn (Forest Hills, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities (Paperback)

A broad (though not particularly deep) guide to the public health problems associated with sprawl, including: (1) the air pollution caused by sprawl-induced auto traffic, (2) the health consequences of the reduction in walking caused by automobile dependency, (3) injuries and deaths from auto traffic, (4) water quality problems associated with suburban development, (5) the alleged intangible costs of automobile dependency (e.g. driving-induced stress, the isolation of nondrivers). None of these issues are addressed in enormous detail; for example, the book occasionally mentions pro-sprawl counterarguments, but does not fully address them. But then again, each of these topics could probably justify a separate book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Public Health input essential for Urban Planning, September 24, 2007

By 

Marc J. Yacht "MJY" (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities (Paperback)

The Europeans are way ahead of our efforts to consider health issues in the urban planning process. This book provides a history and direction to address urban sprawl and understand well the health implications of reckless or solely market-driven city planning. After all, no built community will have sustainability, if its populations are at risk for chronic and acute illness.

Presented are the ingredients to make our cities safer and livable. This is a must read for City Planners, County officials, and anyone interested in cleaning up our urban communities with an eye toward social equity and environmental justice. MJY