The Public Health Reports (PHR) is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Public Health Service official Journal and one of the Nation’s oldest public health publications.

It is a resource that more Corps officers should contribute to and help guide. CAPT Jan Huy is currently acting PHR editor.

Supplement 1: Healthy People in a Healthy Environment indirectly ties to a 2009 Surgeon General call to action on healthy homes in collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“This supplemental issue of PHR evolved from CDC's 2009 National Environmental Public Health Conference, also titled “Healthy People in a Healthy Environment.”  That conference aimed to develop and encourage innovative strategies for addressing existing and emerging issues impacting environmental public health, the discipline that focuses on the interrelationships between people and their environment, promotes human health and well-being, and fosters a safe and healthful environment.

Likewise, this special supplement covers a spectrum of topics about the relationship between health and the environment - from animals as sentinels of environmental and public health to the effect of nature contact on employees in the workplace.

Guest editors CAPT Hugh M. Mainzer and CAPT Daphne B. Moffett, both of CDC/ATSDR, included several articles in the supplement that address healthy housing issues, such as the continued dangers of lead exposure among children and a continued lack of public awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide exposures and how to prevent them, particularly after a disaster. “Green” housing renovations and health outcomes are also featured, as well as interventions to reduce allergens in the homes of asthmatic children.

Finally, a commentary by Dr. Christopher J. Portier, Director of CDC’s National center for Environmental Health, describes the importance of expanding environmental public health beyond the basics of air, water, food, and soil to a broader and more comprehensive approach to help create sustainable, healthy human environments.”