Dear Multnomah County Residents,

Our health is tied to our environment’s health. Public health professionals have long understood this connection and have studied the relationships between human health and the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the places we work, the houses we live in, the items we purchase, and many other aspects of our physical world.

Over the past century, an increasing number of people have become interested in and advocates for the health of our environment. The early 1900s brought public health movements resulting in laws protecting people from hazardous products and unsafe working conditions. The 1960s saw consumer-driven movements resulting in the protection of air and water quality. And today, as our country continues to benefit from these and many other accomplishments, we face new occurrences of old challenges along with new threats to the environment’s health.

An example of these challenges occurred in 1993, when more than 400,000 residents of Milwaukee, Wisconsin became ill from a pathogen in their drinking water supply. Tragedies like this underscore the need for continual monitoring of the environment as a part of preventing disease and protecting the public’s health.

I am pleased to announce the Environmental Health of Multnomah County, a report developed to help us monitor the health of our local environment by identifying and discussing environmental factors that can affect human health. This report is a wealth of information that provides:

• An in-depth local assessment of many of the most important environmental
  health issues;
• Identification of local, state and federal agencies responsible for monitoring
  and protecting the environment; and
• Comparisons of our community’s health to that of the State, the Nation, other counties, and important national health targets.

I would like to acknowledge the Health Department researchers and numerous individuals from local community groups, neighborhood associations, universities and governmental agencies who contributed to this effort. Working together, we continue our history of improving the health of our environment and move closer to our vision of healthy people in healthy communities.

Sincerely,

Lillian Shirley, RN, MPH, MPA Director Multnomah County Health Department

Diane M. Linn, Chair Multnomah County Board of Commissioners

Acknowledgements:

Special thanks to the residents and individuals from organizations and professions around the county who provided valuable feedback to the report:

• Madeleine Eno, Jeff Smith, and Martha Richards, Southeast Neighborhood Association
• Martha Gannett, Sharon Genasci, and Bob Osmunde, Northwest District Association Air Quality Committee
• Diana Wolford and Jennifer McCormick, PSU graduate students in Community Health
• Andrew Baker, PSU graduate student in Health Administration
• Fred Dobson, Campbell Elementary, North Clackamas District
• Ed Wack, Portsmouth Middle School, Portland Public Schools
• Sara Tunstall, Marlene Gin, and Jane Gordon, residents of Multnomah County
• Rick North, Interfaith Network of Earth Concerns
• Nancy Tannler, Southeast Examiner
• Rhett Lawrence, OSPIRG
• Sarah Doll, Oregon Environmental Council
• Andrew Epstein, Independent Living Resources, Oregon Center for Environmental Health
• Fred Berman, Center for Research in Environmental and Occupational Toxicology, OHSU
• Stephanie Farquhar, Professor, PSU Community Health
• Jeri Sundvall, Environmental Justice Action Group
• Lance Trainor, Red Cross of Oregon
• Jane Foreman, Friends of Trees
• Dawn Burgardt, Growing Gardens
• Margaret McConnell, American Lung Association of Oregon
• Larry Tuttle, Center for Environmental Equity
• Linda Kue, Asian Family Center, IRCO
• Kelly Caldwell, Southeast Uplift
• Anthony Barnack, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
• Kevin Odell, PACE, Multnomah County Health Department
• Brenda Keith, PACE, Multnomah County Health Department
• Tricia Tillman, Multnomah County Health Department
• Christine Bernsten, Multnomah County Health Department
• Lila Wickham, Multnomah County Health Department
• Lisa Morley, Multnomah County Health Department