News & Insights

The University of Louisville’s Green Heart Project found that living in or around green canopy enhanced cardiovascular health. Beyond the findings related to cardiovascular health, the project provides strong support for the positive impacts of urban greening and highlights the role that environmental interventions can play in fostering healthier, more resilient communities.

With more than 55 million people in the U.S. who are currently 65 or older (a number that is expected to continue to increase for decades), facilitating healthy aging should be a public health priority. There are Federal and State initiatives that can serve as a blueprint for creating programs and collaborations that improve older adult health.

When viewed as a racial, social justice, and public health issue, intergenerational trauma affects several communities (Black Americans, immigrants, Holocaust survivors, Japanese Americans, and Indigenous People) differently. There are some promising policies, which when implemented in collaboration with impacted communities, can help to address the harms of intergenerational trauma.

The Network for Public Health Law is pleased to announce this call for applications from organizations seeking legal and policy support to promote racial health equity.

Food insecurity and food waste are both increasing in the United States, which negatively impacts public health and creates environmental problems. States can work to address both by passing clear, comprehensive laws regarding liability protection for donated foods, and by providing financial incentives for food donation and imposing organic waste requirements.

The Network for Public Health Law has announced the launch of the Racial Equity Dataset, an interactive online tool that provides extensive data on enacted laws in the 2021 and 2022 legislative cycles related to furthering or hindering racial equity, across the 50 U.S. states.  

The evidence is clear that the criminalization of substance use leads to worse health outcomes for pregnant and postpartum people who use drugs (PPWUD) and their babies. Despite this evidence, many states continue to prioritize punitive measures for PPWUD. Others, however, are beginning to embrace a harm reduction approach to perinatal substance use.

In the wake of the renewed racial justice movement in 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, many jurisdictions across the country enacted laws to address health disparities and advance racial equity, while others enacted laws that may impede these goals. This searchable dataset features the laws that were enacted, and that were still in effect on December 31, 2022.

The Network for Public Health Law (the Network) has released a guide on “Law and Policy Considerations for Workforce Protections from Extreme Heat,” detailing federal, state, and local legal and policy protections for both indoor and outdoor workers exposed to extreme heat on the job. The guide also addresses significant barriers to safeguarding this workforce, including the legal doctrine of preemption, which allows higher levels of government to limit the authority of lower levels; and provides information for policymakers, community leaders, public health practitioners, and others seeking to institute more effective heat protection for workers in their communities.

Passed in 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act has made strides in conservation and the expansion of public lands and green spaces in the United States, which provide immense public health benefits. The Outdoors for All Act, currently awaiting Senate approval, would expand on this progress by increasing access to parks and green spaces in low-income communities and communities of color.

Since its inception, graduated driver licensing (GDL) has focused on minimizing the prevalence of motor vehicle crashes caused by new drivers, reducing related injuries and property damage. Some states have made another important addition to their driver education program—the impact of vehicle emissions on air quality.

Recent litigation under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause has challenged school vaccination requirements that do not allow for a religious exemption. The rulings in these cases have important implications for public health.