Brownfields
Public Health an
ealtn monitoring
Purpose of this Document
The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields
Revitalization Act ("Brownfields Law", P.O. 107-
118) provides new opportunities to consider the
health impacts of brownfields. This fact sheet has
been developed for brownfields staff, grantees, and
stakeholders to assist them as they provide outreach and
technical assistance to brownfield communities. This fact
sheet is structured to:
• summarize health provisions of the
Brownfields law;
• define health monitoring as a public health
practice; and,
• identify tools and organizations that can support
health monitoring in brownfields communities.
Brownfields and Public Health
The Brownfields law defines brownfields as "real
property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of
which may be complicated by the presence or potential
presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or
contaminant."
It is estimated that there are more than 450,000
brownfields in the U.S. Communities may focus on
environmental impacts of brownfields but they may also
wish to consider the broader public health impacts of
brownfields, including:
The Pitt Salvage Yard in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Brownfields Redevelopment: Enhancing
Community Wealth and Community Health
Brownfields
Long-Term
Management
& Stewardship
CREATING COMMUNITY WEALTH THROUGH COMMUNITY HEALTH
Protecting Public
Health & Safety
Safety - abandoned and derelict structures,
open foundations, other infrastructure or
equipment that may be compromised due to
lack of maintenance, vandalism or deterioration,
controlled substance contaminated sites (i.e.,
methamphetamine labs) and abandoned
mine sites;
• Social & Economic - blight, crime and
vagrancy, reduced social capital or community
'connectedness', reductions in the local
government tax base and private property values
that may reduce social services; and,
• Environmental - biological, physical and
chemical from site contamination, groundwater
impacts, surface runoff or migration of
contaminants as well as wastes dumped on site.
Cleaning up brownfields properties can improve public
health in a number of ways, including addressing
safety or environmental concerns at the site. It may
also provide an opportunity for communities to create
safer, healthier communities through the redevelopment
process and use of smart growth principles.
Redevelopment focused on improving public health
may increase recreational or green space creation to
encourage physical activity, community gardens and
restful public spaces that encourage interaction while
also reducing the effects of heat islands and improving
storm water management. Adding accessible and
affordable grocery stores as well as pharmacies or
other health care facilities offers amenities important
to meet community needs as part of healthier
redevelopment and reuse as well as job opportunities
for community residents.
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The Brownfields Law
and Health Monitoring
The Brownfields Law expanded the types of government
and non-governmental organizations eligible for grant
funding, the types of sites eligible for funding and the
resources available to promote sustainable brownfields
cleanup and reuse. It creates a new focus on the
impacts of brownfields, particularly in disadvantaged
communities and among sensitive populations. The
law allows a local government to spend up to 10% of a
brownfields grant for:
"(i) monitoring the health of populations exposed to
one or more hazardous substances from a brownfield
site; and
(ii) monitoring and enforcement of any institutional
control used to prevent human exposure to
any hazardous substance from a brownfield
site." (Section 104(k) of the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation and
Liability Act (CERCLA), 42 U.S.C. 9604(k))
The Brownfields law requires the EPA to organize
an annual national competition to review and select
brownfield grant (assessment, revolving loan fund
(RLF), and cleanup) recipients. Since passage of the
law, the majority of grants directing funds to health
monitoring are assessment grants. Several cleanup grants
and one revolving loan fund grant also have allocated
funds for health monitoring.
An assessment grant provides funding for a grant
recipient to inventory, characterize, assess and conduct
planning for cleanup and redevelopment and community
involvement. A cleanup grant provides funding for
a grant recipient to carry out cleanup activities at
brownfield sites while a revolving loan fund grant
provides funding to capitalize a revolving loan fund
that may make loans or subgrants to carry out cleanup
activities.
Given that each type of brownfield grant funds different
activities, health monitoring activities under each
An abandoned building in Providence, Rhode Island.
type of grant are likely to vary. It is important for local
governments to tailor health monitoring activities to
reflect activities eligible to the appropriate grant. Grant
and health monitoring activities may also depend on
the type of contaminants or issues at a particular site or
community. General types of potential activities include,
but are not limited to:
• Examining site access patterns to determine
the potential for exposures or site hazards (e.g.,
contaminated soils, open foundations) that pose
safety concerns;
Mapping site features that may affect exposures
such as site proximity to drinking water wells or
surface water bodies;
• Monitoring health as part of community-wide
inventory activities;
• Collecting or linking baseline health
and environmental measures to inform
redevelopment planning options. For example,
if health monitoring or health impact assessment
activities showed limited access to health care
services in the brownfield community or a lack
of sidewalks, trails or recreational facilities in
the target community, this information may be
used to propose increased health care services or
increased green space, parks and trails as part of
redevelopment planning; or,
• Monitoring air, nearby play areas, surrounding
soils or surface waters during cleanup, reuse
or as part of long term management and
stewardship to ensure protection of public health
and the environment.
Brownfields Fact Sheet
Public Health
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA-560-F-06-210
July 2006
www.epa.gov/brownfields
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Through 2005, a number of local government grantees
have been successful in seeking health monitoring
funds as part of their brownfield grant. Over twenty five
(25) grants identify specific health monitoring projects
or await assessment results to identify appropriate
monitoring activities. Examples of proposed
activities include:
• Blood lead testing in the target community
in collaboration with the city and state lead
programs and asthma tracking in school
children;
• Examining vital statistics in areas near
brownfield sites; and,
• Testing of air and water with health agencies
based on assessment results; and,
• Assessing community progress in meeting
Healthy People 2010 objectives, national health
goals of the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) that serve as the basis for State
and community health plans, as they relate to
brownfields communities.
State and tribal brownfield response programs oversee
assessment and cleanup activities at the majority of
brownfield sites across the country. Monitoring of the
health of populations around brownfield sites may be of
interest to states and tribes as they establish and enhance
their brownfields response programs.
Soil sampling in Louisville, Kentucky.
Health Monitoring
A Public Health Practice
The EPA Brownfields program has adapted the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) definition
of public health monitoring, for the purpose of the
brownfields program. Health monitoring under an EPA
brownfields grant can be summarized as:
"The collection of health-related qualitative
and quantitative data of relevance to brownfield
communities and hazardous substance exposures."
(See CDC, for additional information on a definition
of public health monitoring)
The Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City before renovation.
Health monitoring, as envisioned under a brownfields
grant, is a public health practice, not research. There
are federal regulations governing research on human
subjects. Local government grantees should work with
state or tribal health agencies responsible for managing
human subject research to ensure compliance with the
applicable law.
As a public health practice, local government agencies
that are planning to monitor health at brownfield
sites will need to work with local and state health
agencies and their EPA project officers to define and
develop appropriate health monitoring projects as part
of their brownfield grant. EPA brownfield grantees
should consult with their state health counterparts and
institutional review boards if they have questions on the
difference between public health practice and research.
Brownfields Fact Sheet
Public Health
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA-560-F-06-210
July 2006
www.epa.gov/brownfields
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Tools and Supporting Organizations
The following list of tools and organizations is not exhaustive
but represents a sample of available tools that may help local
communities and governments interested in learning more
about health monitoring and improving public health as part of
brownfields redevelopment.
Healthy People 2010 - Healthy People 2010 provides a
framework and a statement of national health objectives
designed to identify the most significant preventable threats to
health and to establish national goals to reduce these threats.
For more information, please see:
http://www.healthypeople.gov/default.htm
Health Impact Assessment (HIA) - HIA provides decision
makers with information about how any policy, program or
project may affect the health of people. Please see the EPA
Brownfields and CDC website links for additional HIA
information.
The Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in
Environmental Health (PACE-EH), is a methodology to guide
local communities in identifying and addressing environmental
health priorities. It was developed by NACCHO in partnership
with the National Center for Environmental Health of the
CDC. Please see the " Community-based Environmental
Health Assessment" link on the NACCHO website to
download resource materials and learn more about PACE-EH
projects across the country.
Supporting Organizations
State Health Agencies
Local governments may wish to first contact their state health
agencies to find out information about health issues related to
brownfields, health monitoring, health impact assessment or
other information or technical resources to support brownfields
redevelopment to create healthy communities.
Communities interested in brownfields and public health
issues in Indian country may wish to contact Tribal Health
Agencies or the Indian Health Service.
To learn more about brownfield program activities of the EPA
and our partners, please see the following:
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
I) General brownfields program
http ://www. epa. gov/brownfields/
Information on the public health initiative including
grantees conducting health monitoring and links to
organizations listed below.
http ://www. epa. gov/brownfields/mitiatives.htm
ATSDR Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Communities and state and local health agencies can
seek information or request technical support and
assistance from ATSDR staff and their contractors
on risk assessment and risk communication, health
assessments and health consultations, and other
technical support through the ATSDR home page at:
http ://www. atsdr. cdc. go v/
American Planning Association
Resources to support collaboration between land use
and transportation planners and public health officials
on issues of shared concern, including two major
monographs to be published in late 2006: Integrating
Planning and Public Health: Tools and Strategies
to Create Healthy Places (sponsored by the CDC)
and Planning and Designing the Physically Active
Community Places (sponsored by the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation). For additional resources, please
see the Research section at:
http://www.planning.org
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Information on public health practice can be found
on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) website: http://www.cdc.gov/od/ads/opspolll.
htm To learn more about the healthy places initiative
of the CDC, go to: http ://www.cdc. gov/healthyplaces/
Environmental Law Institute (ELI)
http ://www. eli. org
• The Brownfields Center of ELI provides valuable
information on assessment and cleanup of
brownfields as well as tools and models for
promoting community health and sustainability
through brownfields redevelopment.
http://www.brownfieldscenter.org/small/about.shtml
5] National Association of County and City Health
Officials (NACCHO)
Provides resources, tools, and training to support
improvements in environmental health and to better
integrate local health department officials in the
initial stages of land use planning process.
http ://www. naccho .org
I National Association of Local Boards of Health
I (NALBOH)
Resources that support local boards of health and
their efforts to improve environmental health practice
and involve health professionals in local land use
planning decisions.
http ://www.nalboh.org/
U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM)
Provides best practice approaches and resources to
support mayors and their staff in advancing efforts to
address and redevelop brownfield sites while creating
economic opportunities and improving and protecting
the environment and public health, http ://www.uscm.org/
The private nonprofit organizations listed above are not the only sources of information regarding Brownfields and public health and other organizations
may also provide useful information. Please note that these private organizations have their own policies relating to Brownfields cleanup and revitalization
and that their views may not necessarily coincide with those of EPA.
Brownfields Fact Sheet
Public Health
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA-560-F-06-210
July 2006
www. epa.gov/brownfields
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