Archive: Around Town

Health care professionals will join leaders in the sustainability movement at a summit-style event on September 15. The regional Health and Sustainability Conference, held at Ithaca College, links emerging public health issues with sustainable living concepts.

"Global disease patterns, environmental toxins, obesity, untreated preventable diseases, and more frequent and destructive natural disasters are putting unprecedented stresses on our health care systems," said Gay Nicholson, of Sustainable Tompkins. "This conference is intended to help us take a step back and see these problems as connected and solvable in new ways."

The all-day conference features a keynote address by Jonathan Patz, a university researcher who has briefed Congress on the health risks associated with climate change. Patz will outline the emerging threats to public health of intensified heat waves, sprawl development, and chemical exposures and how to reduce these risks by rethinking how we live and work.

Also speaking at the conference is Sandra Steingraber, an environmental researcher and author of Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks and Cancer and the Environment. Steingraber is a cancer survivor whose work is often compared to that of Rachel Carson.

Other conference speakers, consultants, and exhibitors will present information on building healthy community infrastructures, improving nutrition, and greening medical facilities. Local chefs will offer tasty treats in a healthy dessert competition at the closing reception.

"We are especially reaching out to health care practitioners, administrators, elected officials, and other public policy makers," said Nicholson, adding that the conference is open to all. "Anyone with an interest in these issues is welcome to register and attend."

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