Community Organizations and Tufts Researchers to Release Report: Improving the Health of Near-Highway Communities

Community Organizations and Tufts Researchers to Release Report:

Improving the Health of Near-Highway Communities

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (February 26, 2015) – On Wednesday, March 4, the Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health (CAFEH) project will release its report, “Improving the Health of Near-Highway Communities,” produced with support from the Kresge Foundation. Design Solutions from a Charrette explores design strategies for mitigating the health impacts of living near highways. Recently published findings will be reported that exposure of Somerville residents to ultrafine particles near the highway is associated with increased levels of blood molecules that predict risk of cardiovascular disease.

Doug Brugge, Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine said, “With the Somerville research findings and this report showing approaches to address the problem, we are now in a good position for the city to be one of the first in the nation to be proactive and take action.”

Conducted jointly by community leaders and Tufts University faculty and students, this work represents a rich partnership between Tufts University’s School of Medicine, School of Engineering, Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, and local organizations Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership (STEP), Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), the Metropolitan Area Planning Council  (MAPC), the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), Linnean Solutions and the City of Somerville.

Wig Zamore of STEP said, “At the local grass roots level, STEP has been working for over a decade on sustainable solutions for local live work balance based on healthier transportation mode splits that encourage increased use of clean transit, walking and biking and decreased exposures to regional highways and diesel rail corridors. We are especially glad that our work with CAFEH is both adding to the growing body of environmental health science on near highway health risks and helping to craft a set of protective design options for those most exposed in the Boston region and others in similar situations across the US and the globe.”

The CAFEH study is a series of community-based participatory research projects about localized pollution near highways and major roadways in the Boston area that is also developing design approaches to protecting human health. CAFEH’s “Improving the Health of Near-Highway Communities” initiative seeks to enact positive changes at the community level. The design charrette engaged the local design community in developing design solutions to minimize the negative health effects of near-roadway air pollution for the communities for two case study sites, one in Boston Chinatown and one in Somerville.