Health Impacts Of Sprawl Quantified

Research data compiled from several sources suggest that suburban sprawlaffects the public health through its impacts on housing, transportation,industry, agriculture, and land-use patterns. The report, Creating a HealthyEnvironment: The Impact of the Built Environment on Public Health, wascompiled by Sprawl Watch, a clearinghouse for information on sprawl-relatedissues. Findings show that increases in vehicle miles traveled have resultedin an increase in air pollution and in the incidence of respiratorydiseases. In addition, sedentary living habits are a significant factor inthe incidence of overweight and obesity. Lack of pedestrian-friendlyfeatures in a community may lead to illness and even death: In 1997 and1998, 13 percent of all traffic fatalities were pedestrians. The executivedirector of the National Association of County and City Health Officials(NACCHO) called for a cooperative effort among local agencies to addressthese issues. Editor's note: The link below is to an Adobe Acrobate PDF file.