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Although the APHA 130th Annual Meeting is still three months away, the ICEHS Section leadership has been busy planning a program to meet the professional and social needs of all of our Section members. The Scientific Program Committee, lead by Steve Marshall, Beth Monaco and Anna Waller, recruited a small army of volunteer reviewers and have organized an outstanding scientific program for Philadelphia. In addition, Nelson Adekoya has done a fine job organizing the late-breaker sessions. You can review the detailed scientific program for ICEHS at <http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/program_244.htm>. Also included in this newsletter is a view of the primary sponsorship sessions at a glance, thanks to Anna Waller and the Program Committee. There are many new activities scheduled for this year, including a continental breakfast to welcome new ICEHS members to the Section. This will take place in conjunction with the Section's first business meeting on Monday morning from 6:30-8. In addition, the Section's social hour will be Monday evening from 6:30-7:30. ICEHS has a proud tradition of friendly collegiality with established researchers and experienced program planners providing meaningful encouragement to those entering the field. I hope ALL Section members will make plans to attend the breakfast and business meetings and make an effort to welcome our new members. At the Awards Dinner we will be instituting what we hope will become a new tradition in which we honor the contributions of health professionals from the host city to the field of injury control and emergency health services. The ICEHS archivist, Les Fisher, has kindly volunteered to review his extensive personal archives and prepare a brief appreciation and history. Philadelphia has an especially rich history and we will all benefit from considering how the earlier efforts of those in our respective fields have paved the way for the more recent advances in the health and safety of all Americans. As you make your travel plans, please remember that the opening session will start at noon on Sunday, Nov. 9, (not on Monday morning as in previous years). The early bird registration closes August 30, so make your reservations soon. I look forward to seeing you all in November. Be Safe, Cathy Gotschall, ScD
Theresa Cruz Chair, Communications Committee ICEHS has the opportunity to have one of its own elected to serve
on the Executive Board of APHA. Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN, has
been an active member of the ICEHS Section since 1984. She has
served as newsletter co-editor, scientific program committee chair,
Section chair and the Section policy committee co-chair. Linda has
also served APHA as a reference committee chair for the Joint Policy
Committee. She has been involved in the field of injury control for
many years, as a trauma program coordinator, director of the New
Haven Regional Injury Prevention Program, and She is currently an associate professor of emergency medicine and public health at Yale. She is actively involved in teaching graduate students, medical students and residents, as well as working on her research, which is currently examining policies that relate to alcohol-impaired driving. Linda has her DrPH and MSN from Yale, and also has completed the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship in Washington, D.C., where she worked for Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn. She has been actively involved in state coalitions that focus on injury prevention and underage drinking prevention, including the Connecticut Coalition for Education Against Gun Violence, and the Connecticut Coalition to Stop Underage Drinking, and has experience in advocating for injury control and alcohol policy on the state and national level. Please help to get Linda elected so that ICEHS has a greater
voice in APHA. The Executive Board and Association officers are
elected by the Governing Council, which consists of representatives
from all Sections of APHA, state Affiliates and other affiliates.
Please talk with your friends and colleagues who are members of
other Sections of APHA and state Affiliates and ask them to support
Linda's election to the board. If you are a member of a state
Affiliate, talk with the Affiliate leadership about Linda's
candidacy and encourage them to vote for her. You can do this even
if you are not attending the Annual Meeting. If you have questions
about Linda's background or experience, you can contact her or other
members of the Section leadership for more information.
Janet Holden, chair-elect Nominations Committee chair The Section Awards Committee is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2002 Annual Awards. The awards will be presented at the Annual Section Dinner on Tuesday evening, Nov. 12. Thanks to all of those who submitted and reviewed nominations. The Career Achievement Award will be received by Frank Haight, nominated by Ted Miller. Dr. Haight retired as a professor at the University of California, Irvine, in 1998. However, he is far from "retired." In 1968, Haight became the founding editor of Accident Analysis and Prevention. Thirty four years later at age 82, Haight continues to edit the most enduring journal in the injury prevention field. The journal's hallmark has been and remains a commitment to working with young authors without much journal experience, especially those from developing countries. Frank patiently allows multiple revisions in order to get creative research into print. In addition, he founded Transportation Research (Parts A and B) in 1966 and remains the editor-in-chief. The Public Service Award will be received by Sue Makintubee Mallonee, nominated by Ellen Schmidt. Mallonee is the chief of the Injury Prevention Service of the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In addition to her work developing the Oklahoma Injury Prevention Program, she was a founding member of the State and Territorial Injury Prevention Directors Association and has served as treasurer and president of that association. She serves as a member of the Advisory Committee to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and participated in the preparation of the Institute of Medicine report, "The Burden of Injuries." Lee Annest will be honored with the Excellence in Science Award, nominated by Kyran Quinlan. Annest is the director of the Office of Statistics and Programming at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. In this position he has been pivotal in the development and promotion of standard mortality groupings for reporting injury data. Annest has led the field in injury surveillance. He spearheaded the expansion of the Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System to capture data on all injuries, not just those involving consumer products. He then made these data available in a very timely fashion on the Web through the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System. As a result, the professional injury community now has timely national surveillance of both fatal and nonfatal injuries. The Section also awarded an International Distinguished Career Award in March of this year at the 6th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Control in Montreal, Canada. The award was presented to Barry Pless of the College of Medicine, McGill University and the director of the Injury Prevention Program of the Montreal Children's Hospital. Barry was nominated by both Fred Rivera and Anara Guard. He is the founder and current editor of the international journal Injury Prevention. Through his efforts, he has ensured that the field has a high quality resource that is equally relevant to researchers and practitioners. Pless has not limited himself to one aspect of injury prevention, a single country or a single language. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Canadian injury surveillance system and has mentored dozens of students and health professionals in their careers, many of whom have become leaders in the injury control field. Please join us to honor these outstanding men and women for their
contributions which have enriched all of our professional endeavors
in this often under-recognized field. In these days of economic uncertainty, many state and local health departments are facing huge budget shortfalls for the coming fiscal year. In Los Angles County, as many as 5,000 jobs may be lost in the health department. Nonmandated programs may be particularly vulnerable during this period. In Los Angeles, as in many other jurisdictions, the Injury and Violence Prevention Program may be spared because the program is almost entirely grant funded. However, foundations and government grants may also be sparse due to the economic crisis. Many states are facing budget shortfalls, and public health is
facing cuts. Although injury surveillance can serve as a major
component of the defense against bioterrorism, most of the
bio-terrorism funds are directed toward infectious disease. At this
year's APHA 130th Annual Meeting, I would suggest that those
involved in local health departments or those who are interested in
insuring that we keep injury prevention programs in local health
departments, set up a time to meet and strategize about the most
effective way to address this issue. If you are interested in
working together on this issue, please e-mail me at <bweiss@dhs.co.la.ca.us>
to find a time when we can get together in Philadelphia.
Ronda Zakocs, PhD Chair, Membership Committee The ICEHS Membership Committee seeks a new chair and/or co-chairs
beginning this fall. If interested, please contact Ronda Zakocs,
current membership chair (<rzakocs@bu.edu> or 617-638-5835)
or Cathy Gotschall, ICEHS chair (<cgotschall@nhtsa.dot.gov>
or (202) 366-1653). Sunday, Nov. 10: 2:30 to 8 p.m.
Les Fisher, ICEHS Archivist Philadelphia has an especially rich ICEHS history. Personal archival reports and journal articles (circa 1960) of the city of Philadelphia, Department of Public Health, Division of Environmental Health, Accident Prevention Program, illustrate a focus on lead poisoning, home and auto safety and poison prevention and control. "Philly" leads the injury control field as we know it today. It started with the pioneering vision of Professor Emil Tiboni. He formulated a system for "accident prevention" in a local health department. ( Tiboni E A. A profile of a local heath department. Amer J Pub Health 57; 1967, 665-676). His vision was carried out in Philadelphia where I worked with
from 1964-1968, (Miano SR, Tyler,R, Fisher L. Sanitarians can lead .
J Environmental Health 32;1969: 195-197). Work by the Accident
Prevention Program led in great part to the successful removal of
several harmful consumer products. That early experience in national
product safety would provide the foundation for my own and others'
career in injury control.
APHA 130th Annual Meeting PLEASE NOTE: Locations are subject to change. PCC = Pennsylvania Convention Center
Visit The Nation's Health Online
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associate
director of research for emergency medicine at Yale.