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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Environmental health

Climate Change, Health, and Equity: A Guide for Local Health Departments
Offers suggestions for ways in which local public health departments can integrate climate change and health equity into practice. Examines the effects of climate change on rural communities and includes sections on health impacts of climate change, health benefits of climate action, and the role of public health agencies.
Author(s): Linda Rudolph, Catherine Harrison, Laura Buckley, Savannah North
Date: 2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: American Public Health Association, Center for Climate Change & Health, Public Health Institute
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Border 2020: United States-Mexico Environmental Program Highlights Report, Autumn 2018
Highlights the accomplishments of the U.S.-Mexico Environmental Border 2020 Program from 2016 to 2018. Discusses various initiatives addressing air and water quality, solid waste management, emergency preparedness and response, environmental stewardship, and environmental health.
Date: 2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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As the South Grows: Weathering the Storm
Discusses the impact of environmental change on the social and economic systems of the South and how climate change may disproportionately harm the South's already struggling communities. Presents opportunities and supporting information for foundations, hoping to encourage climate-related philanthropy throughout the South.
Additional links: Executive Summary
Author(s): Ryan Schlegel, Stephanie Peng
Date: 11/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
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Leveling the Playing Field for Rural Students
Provides a snapshot of rural schools and discusses the challenges they face. Challenges include how to provide new, high quality educational opportunities, health barriers that affect learning, providing career and technical education programs, food insecurity for rural children, and investments in rural schools.
Date: 11/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: School Superintendents Association, The Rural School and Community Trust
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A Prospective Study of Cancer Risk among Agricultural Health Study Farm Spouses Associated with Personal Use of Organochlorine Insecticides
Highlights an investigation into the health effects of exposure to organochlorine pesticides for farmers and their spouses. Draws data from the Agricultural Health Study, which surveys agricultural workers in Iowa and North Carolina.
Author(s): Lydia M. Louis, Catherine C. Lerro, Melissa C. Friesen, et al.
Citation: Environmental Health, 16(1), 95
Date: 09/2017
Type: Document
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Culture and Self-Determination Provide Strength to Heal
Describes how the Seneca Nation of Indians has incorporated its culture into programs and community initiatives. Examples include school and adult Seneca language immersion programs, restoring indigenous plants, cultivating native animals, and the Seneca Strong program to address substance abuse by incorporating prevention and sobriety programming into traditional rites of passage, outdoor skills camps, and powwows. The Seneca Nation of Indians (New York) received the 2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Prize.
Date: 09/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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A Community Holding Hands to Bridge its Divide
Describes the actions taken and programs developed by the residents of Garrett County, Maryland, in response to the economic, cultural, and health challenges they face. Working together, the Garrett County residents have been able to provide scholarships to every high school graduate to attend community college for free, develop 700 affordable, low-income, mixed-income, and workforce housing units, and more. Garrett County is a recipient of the 2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Prize.
Date: 09/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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A 'Scrappy' Push for Health: 'Our Best Asset Is Our People'
Provides an overview of health challenges in Allen County, Kansas, and actions that communities in the area have taken to address them, including fundraising for a local hospital, building bike and walking trails, establishing job training programs, advocating for improved access to healthy food, and more. Allen County is a recipient of the 2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Prize.
Date: 09/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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Pollution and Regional Variations of Lung Cancer Mortality in the United States
Identifies counties in the U.S. with higher rates of lung cancer mortality and related community-level factors, including rurality, socioeconomic status, level of particulate matter pollution, and access to healthcare. Includes a map showing lung cancer mortality clusters and a "lung cancer mortality belt" from eastern Oklahoma through central Appalachia.
Author(s): Justin Xavier Moore, Tomi Akinyemiju, Henry E. Wang
Citation: Cancer Epidemiology, 49, 118-127
Date: 08/2017
Type: Document
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County-Level Cumulative Environmental Quality Associated with Cancer Incidence
Uses the environmental quality index (EQI), a county-level measure of cumulative environmental exposures, to examine all-site and site-specific cancer incidence. Explores rural versus urban factors influencing environmental quality. Includes statistics of cancer incidence and EQI for rural and urban areas.
Author(s): Jyotsna S. Jagai, Lynne C. Messer, Kristen M. Rappazzo, et al.
Citation: Cancer, 123(5), 2901-2908
Date: 08/2017
Type: Document
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