|  |
| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
2 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 You can't review your own book Apr 28, 2006
Ms Legg. You can't review your own book and give it 5 stars. You can't review your own book by cutting and pasting an article by a news reporter. This review therefore provides a karmic counterweight to your self-review.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Author takes practical view of pollution, health links Mar 17, 2006
Author takes practical view of pollution, health links
Evan Brandt, ebrandt@pottsmerc.com03/13/2006
The world is a complicated place and the interaction between the environment, what we put into it and what we take out if it, can be difficult to quantify or understand.
The world is a complicated place and the interaction between the environment, what we put into it and what we take out if it, can be difficult to quantify or understand.
This is particularly true for those who believe that pollution in our environment is having an impact on our health or that of our children -- both born and unborn.
Often, as has happened here in the greater Pottstown area, this belief is focused on a particular facility that is a known polluter.
The near-certainty with which activists, officials and concerned residents sometimes approach new proposals or public hearings -- certainty that a particular plant or pollutant is the cause of some harm -- is often undercut by a lack of cohesive scientific evidence. Despite study upon study and reams of circumstantial evidence, government regulators often seem reluctant to crack down on a polluter, or deny a controversial proposal, without rock-solid proof.
This can seem an even greater injustice in poor communities -- often called "environmental justice communities" -- that carry a disproportionate burden of the nation's polluters and which often struggle to successfully demonstrate harm from a particular proposal.
But Janine M. Legg. MBA, has a found a way -- instead of pushing for proof that does not yet exist, use the proof that's already out there.
A Phoenixville resident, environmental consultant and health advocate, Legg last month added "published author" to her list of professional accomplishments.
Also the vice chairman of Pennsylvania's Environmental Justice Advisory Board a position to which she was appointed by Kathleen McGinty, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection -- Legg offers a step-by-step guide to focusing on the doable in her new book.
Although the book's title, "Building Healthy Communities in Environmental Justice Areas," doesn't exactly scream "summer blockbuster," it could end up being one of the more important books you've ever read if you suspect that pollution in your community is affecting your health or the health of your family.
The book takes a principled, logical approach to the bewildering array of studies, counter-intuitive statistics, symptoms and substances faced by those trying to prove the health and environment of stressed communities are threatened. Years of study have suggested plenty of links between pollution and illness, but few aren't challenged. But as Legg's book shows, often the few accepted proofs that do exist are enough.
"There is a body of research out there that is very confusing and very inconsistent," Legg said. "But you can look at the chemicals we do know produce the most risk and the facilities that emit those chemicals in the highest volume, and match those against health statistics where those facilities are located."
By matching existing data about emissions and the recognized dangerous substances within them with available statistics about things like infant mortality, low birth-weight, asthma and other tracked illnesses, it is often possible to demonstrate conclusively that a community is bearing an undue burden that may be linked to a particular facility, industry or combination.
"You can look through a lot of the accumulated statistics and figure out pretty quickly `Do I have a problem or don't I?'" said Legg.
Places where pollution problems exist are right here in Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties, which Legg's book identifies as "counties of concern." Although Philadelphia is the only county under that rubric that qualifies as an "environmental justice community," Legg's review of the data notes that Chester County has the highest risk for phosphorus releases.
While the data information the book contains is valuable, it is perhaps not nearly so valuable as the manner in which it lays out the steps a community, whether it be political leaders or grass-roots organizers, can take to understand whether their community is at risk.
Early reviews agree that the book can be useful.
Preety Gadhoke, MPH, of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, wrote that Legg's book "is a practical, interdisciplinary solution for health officials, policy makers and grassroots organizations to work as a cohesive unit with the singular goal of addressing the health care needs of high-risk communities."
"My advice to community is don't get hung-up on terms; the bottom line is you have some sick people and you need to do something about it," Legg said.
What to do, can be an equally daunting question, and again the book offers suggestions and a guide to making your community understand the risks it faces and the options it has for addressing those risks.
Legg cautions against blaming pollution for all of society's health problems. It's no secret that Americans are increasingly obese, get less exercise and indulge in any number of unhealthy habits, all of which carry a health risk.
"To say the environment is the only factor, that's simply not reasonable," she said.
"We know that if your child gets better nutrition, you lower his or her risk of getting lead poisoning," she said by way of example. "Why would you not do everything in your power to lower your child's risk?
"What the book is trying to achieve is a balance, the ability to look at these issues in a balanced manner," Legg said. "People need to understand they don't need to get power, they are already empowered. The information is out there, they just need to learn to use it."
©The Mercury 2006
|
| | |
|
|
