Since reporting to the Board in February 2003, the Environmental Health Committee has 1) commented on two proposed environmental health topics for Preventive Medicine 2004 sessions, and 2) suggested ideas for committee activities.

Preventive Medicine 2004 Sessions

CDC's National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) will provide funding to support two educational sessions at the Preventive Medicine 2004 meeting in Orlando (Feb. 18-22). This opportunity is significant because it will bring environmental health content to our members and offer CME credits.

The Environmental Health Committee was asked to help select session topics and provide suggestions for speakers. Several members shared their thoughts and offered to help put the sessions together.

Committee Activities

In October Committee Chair Diane Matuszak circulated a memo to the Committee requesting their input on what specific activities the Committee could engage in. She noted that this committee is unusual for the College because it was intended to be topic specific. She also noted that since its inception the Committee has had trouble gaining momentum and finding its niche, despite several opportunities for committee planning including an in-person meeting with NCEH/ATSDR representatives in January 2003.

Dr. Matuszak recently reviewed the summaries from Committee meetings and noted the topics that seem to hold the most interest for the Committee as the following:

• Training - the Committee was interested in environmental health fellowships and other post-graduate training to boost the pipeline of physicians with environmental health training. If one looks at the competencies for occupational/environmental health for preventive medicine residency training programs, there are only two and both are very general. One would expect greater competencies to be gained in an environmental health fellowship.  Thus far, the competencies have not been defined.
   

• Education – the Committee was interested in better representation each year on the Preventive Medicine 2004 committee/ subcommittees to ensure quality environmental health content in the meeting program. Three Committee members are participating in the planning of the 2004 meeting.
   

• Policy – the Committee was interested in developing policy statements on environmental health issues such as reducing health disparities related to environmental health and environmental public health tracking.

At the present time the Committee is struggling to identify a project that will engage the membership and advance the College’s broad agenda, without having funding to support an activity.