BU SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
RECEIVES 100K DONATION
TO LAUNCH NEW ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM
Boston
University’s School of Public Health has received a $100,000 donation from Abby
Rockefeller of Cambridge, MA, to establish the new Program on the Ecology of
Human Systems. The program will be among the first academically based
initiatives to promote an understanding of the impacts of technological choices
on human health and the environment.
Focusing on research, education, and practical, field-based projects, the program will link students, public health professionals, and community members who are concerned about local environmental pollution. The program seeks to influence public policy and increase popular understanding of the implications to human and environmental health of technological choices.
The Boston University School of Public Health and the Boston-based ReSource Institute for Low Entropy Systems are joint sponsors of the program. The ReSource Institute — founded by Abby Rockefeller — is an independent, nonprofit organization that works in partnership with local communities to protect public health and the environment both nationally and internationally.
"We're excited to be joining a highly-respected academic institution with an outstanding record of real concern for the relationship between human and environmental health, " says Laura Orlando, executive director of the ReSource Institute. "The program's mission is unique and vital to understanding the profound effects of the environmental decisions we are making every day."
Among the issues the program will confront are the policies and technologies associated with the management of human waste. According to Richard Clapp, associate professor of public health at the Boston University School of Public Health, many of the current approaches to addressing water pollution, energy production, and solid waste management are too resource intensive to be practical over time.
"Unsustainable sanitation methods are the global norm," says Clapp. "This causes poor community health, polluted water, toxic sludge, and marginalized water ecosystems and aquatic life. Among the results is the death of 2.2 million people each year — mostly children."
The Rockefeller donation will help support three projects at the Program on the Ecology of Human Systems:
1. The establishment of "Love Canal University," an accessible research and teaching archive of the Love Canal hazardous waste site, based on the local organizing effort that brought the incident to national attention.
2. A field-based project in Mexico to measure the impact of sustainable sanitation technologies on health, hygiene, and local environmental conditions. This effort will integrate field placements for Boston University students.
3. A seminar series on the implications of technological choices from the viewpoints of ecological and human health.
The donation will also support faculty affiliated with the program and publications related to its research and interests.