[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 41 (Tuesday, April 4, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E498-E499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      NATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH WEEK

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL M. HONDA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 4, 2006

  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of National Public 
Health Week. I want to thank the American Public Health Association and 
its 200 plus partner organizers and sponsors, who have organized events 
around the Nation to raise awareness of the need to improve public 
health. Since 1995, National, State and local public health 
professionals highlight an important public health issue every April, 
to raise awareness about leading health problems affecting our nation. 
This year, the theme of National Public Health Week focuses on what is 
called the ``built environment,'' and building healthy communities to 
protect and enhance our children's life.
  The built environment potentially creates enhancements or challenges 
for our kids. The built environment is any infrastructure with

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which children come in contact on a daily basis including homes, 
schools, parks, roads, walkways and businesses. Enhancements to the 
built environment include access to primary health care services, 
regular physical activity, safe places to play and safe routes to walk 
or bike to school, smoke-free communities and homes, and toxin-free 
schools. Health challenges include decreased access to medical and 
preventive health services, quality of and access to schools and 
housing, economic opportunities, social capital, air and water quality 
and opportunities for physical activity.
  As Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, CAPAC, I 
am particularly concerned about how the built environment affects 
communities of color, native communities, and linguistically isolated 
communities. Members of these communities are more likely to live, 
work, and play in environments which have detrimental health effects, 
often vastly disproportionate to their percentage of the population. 
For example, asthma is one of the major causes of illness and 
disability in the U.S. Although asthma is only slightly more prevalent 
among minority children than among whites, it accounts for three times 
the number of deaths. Low socioeconomic status, exposure to urban 
environmental contaminants, and lack of access to medical care 
contribute to the increase of deaths in minority communities. African 
Americans living in low-income neighborhoods have particularly high 
rates of asthma, as do Native Hawaiians living in Hawaii.
  America must invest more resources and be more creative in order to 
eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities. We need to provide 
access to health care for the 45 million uninsured, more than half of 
whom are racial and ethnic minorities; we need to provide 
linguistically and culturally competent services; we need to increase 
rather than decrease funding for Title VII health professions training 
programs, especially those that will train minority providers; and we 
need to stop gutting the health care safety net.
  Neighborhoods and communities across the U.S. are segregated by race 
and socioeconomic status, which exacerbates the underlying social and 
economic inequities that perpetuate health inequities. Without 
significant investment in the built environment for minority children 
in underserved communities, these health inequities will continue.
  I am pleased to see that the American Public Health Association--the 
leading public health organization in the U.S.--has been able to 
disseminate the message about the interconnectedness between health and 
the built environment, and hope that this reality is integrated into 
the public health debate. I look forward to working with all those 
involved with National Public Health Week to ensure policies to promote 
children's health.

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