APHA Adopts 19 New Policies

Washington, D.C., January 19, 2006 – The American Public Health Association recently adopted 19 policies addressing a broad range of issues in public health from access to contraceptives and availability of the influenza vaccine to sexuality education in schools and access to care following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Following are descriptions of the measures approved by the Association’s Governing Council during its 133 rd Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Dec. 10-14, 2005. The descriptions are brief summaries; to read the full 2005 policies go to Policy Statements.

• Condemning torture of detainees by health professionals – Condemns health professionals’ participation in, cooperation with or failure to report the mental or physical abuse of prisoners or detainees and supports the rights of health workers to be protected from retribution for refusing to participate in or cooperate with abuse or torture in military settings. Also urges school and programs educating health professionals to include training in ethical conduct.

• A public health approach to influenza vaccination – Supports universal influenza vaccination by, among many recommendations, calling for support of a federal vaccine purchase program for uninsured adults, encouraging proper public health preparedness in the event of an influenza vaccine shortage and urging the U.S. government to consider increasing incentives for pharmaceutical companies to invest in the research, development and production capacity of influenza vaccine.

• Economic support for Millennium Development Goals – Urges the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to support macroeconomic and lending policies that help developing countries reach the Millennium Development Goals, urges the United States and other wealthy nations to provide “long-term and predictable funding” to low-income countries to help those countries reach the Millennium Development Goals.

• Occupational health and safety for immigrants – Supports formalizing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s policy not to refer cases involving undocumented workers to immigration officials, creating initiatives to permit OSHA and the Employment Standards Administration to collaborate with community, faith-based and worker organizations to improve immigrant outreach and ensuring that all workers, regardless of immigration status, have access to workers compensation when injured.

• Protecting human milk from chemical contamination – Urges state, federal and international efforts to prevent toxic chemicals from polluting the environment and human milk, urges the U.S. government to fully implement the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, urges the Environmental Protection Agency to incorporate breastfeeding as one route of exposure in conducting risk assessments on chemicals and supports a national human milk monitoring program.

• Reducing occupational exposure to benzene – Urges Congress to fund the Occupational Safety and Health Administration at a level necessary to review current scientific evidence on benzene to establish a new standard, urges OSHA to consider evidence from epidemiological studies and risk assessments that consider multiple environmental sources of benzene exposure, urges federal funding for research to determine the level of benefits in morbidity, mortality and productivity of individuals and industries by establishing benzene standards.

• Protecting children from lead exposure – Supports the elimination of childhood lead exposure by banning all nonessential uses of lead and supports further reducing allowable lead levels in air emissions, house dust, soil, food and water. Also supports federal legislation to ban lead from candy wrappers and other consumer products and the development of an aggressive, culturally and linguistically appropriate prevention and education program by public health workers.

• Supporting global strategy on diet, physical education and health – Supports the World Health Organization’s Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, encourages U.S. local, state, federal and tribal governments to develop strategies addressing the impact of overweight and obesity, encourages surveillance data on obesity to be maintained, supports obesity research and encourages organizations at all levels of American society to support nutritious food choices and physical activity.

• Addressing unmet end-of-life needs – Supports an active public health role in advocating for end-of-life issues, including honoring a patient’s right to make end-of-life decisions. Promotes the use of hospice and palliative care through education of its availability and benefits by health care providers and supports federal priority recommendations for state health department action, such as collecting and analyzing data on end of life through state surveys.

• Sexuality education in schools – Urges all schools to plan and implement comprehensive sexuality education as an integral part of comprehensive K-12 school health education. The education must be scientifically and medically accurate, be consistent with community standards and be implemented in a non-judgmental manner that does not impose religious viewpoints on students. Congress should require that all sexuality education supported by the federal government be medically and scientifically accurate.

• Colorectal cancer screening – Urges employers and insurers to remove barriers to colorectal screening, urges state governments to require that all health insurers include full coverage for colorectal cancer screening and related diagnostic tests, urges state and local health departments to include colorectal cancers in all cancer screening programs and promote screening to their clients and encourages the federal government to collect data and promote colorectal cancer screening.

• Strengthening the public health work force – Urges Congress to provide adequate funding for a comprehensive national database on the public health work force, including race, ethnicity, gender and disability status; supports the developing of and funding for best practices for recruitment, retention and training of the public health work force and calls for increased funding for programs designed to improve public health leadership and management training.

The following seven policies were passed as latebreakers and will serve as interim policies until confirmed by the Governing Council at its 2006 meeting.

• Support for oral health programs – Actively supports the Alaska Dental Health Aide Therapist Program and other innovative programs and practices designed to help prevent and alleviate the great unmet oral health needs of Alaska Natives and supports innovative oral health programs for other under-served populations.

• Protection of rescue and recovery workers and volunteers – Urges several actions be taken to reduce the risks to rescue and recovery workers, volunteers and residents responding to disasters, including implementation of the National Response Plan’s worker and community environmental testing and monitoring provisions, enforcement of all Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Environmental Protection Agency regulations, adoption of criteria for the remediation of contaminated soil prior to construction and protections for vulnerable workers, including immigrants and temporary workers.

• Ensuring access to care following hurricanes Katrina and Rita – Supports legislation designed to enable people from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas, who have been displaced by hurricanes and relocated, to have the ability to receive state-sponsored health care including Medicaid in the state of temporary residence, with the federal system paying for their health care until they are able to return to their homes or establish permanent residence in another location.

• Needs of immigrants following Gulf Coast hurricanes – Calls upon Congress and federal and state agencies to provide resources allowing for specific, targeted outreach to affected immigrant communities in the Gulf Coast, ensure that immigrant hurricane victims have immediate access to such benefits as Medicaid and food stamps, ensure continuity of refugee services and provide automatic extension of lawful status for people with non-immigrant visas.

• Access to contraceptive prescriptions – Supports many provisions to ensure women are able to have contraceptive prescriptions filled without interference or delay, including collaboration between pharmacist associations, pharmacies and schools of pharmacy to work with reproductive and public health professionals to conduct ongoing educational programs for pharmacists about the dispensing of contraception and emergency contraception. Continues to urge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make emergency contraception available over the counter.

• Increasing research funds for nanotechnology – Urges Congress and relevant federal agencies to dedicate at least $100 million of the total funding related to the National Nanotechnology Initiative annually for at least the next several years specifically to research on the occupational and environmental health and safety implications of nanomaterials.

• Reducing food-related disparities – Calls on Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to implement policies that invest in prevention, productivity and economic revitalization by modernizing the federal statutes that authorize Food Stamp Nutrition Education, giving states more flexibility in funding and record-keeping, increasing food stamp minimum monthly benefits and providing technical assistance and evaluation for nutrition and public health between USDA and sister agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.