ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES RESEARCH CENTER
A National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center of Excellence

Environment, Health and the Future in the Central USA:
2009 Policy Summit

January 29-31, 2009
Chicago, IL

"Environment, Health and the Future in the Central USA: 2009 Policy Summit ” took place January 29, 30 and 31 at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago. The organizers were able to attract 22 legislators and a legislative staff member from six Midwestern states --Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky and Missouri to meet with and learn from scientists from the University of Iowa Superfund Basic Research Program (isbrp) and the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center, staff members from EPA Region 5 and EPA Headquarters in Washington DC, a staff member of the Chicago office of the US Army Corps of Engineers, and a climate change scientist from CDC's National Center for Environmental Health. Several NGOs either spoke or attended.  The keynote was presented by the head of the Chicago Mayor’s office of energy.

The overarching goal of the workshop was to translate environmental health research into knowledge that is important to Midwestern legislators. We chose four environmental health topics most relevant to the scientific mission of the isbrp and the EHSRC, all of which relate to environmental health in the Midwest:

1. Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and PDBE contamination in the Great Lakes region,
2. Healthy community design, healthy buildings and the renovation of the built environment,
3. Adaptation and mitigation of climate change including responding to floods and stimulating renewable energy production, and
4. Radon incidence and mitigation.