Statement Of Janet D. Allan

Environmental Protection Agency
Aging Initiative Public Listening Session
Baltimore, Maryland
May 7, 2003

Janet D. Allan, Ph.D, RN, FAAN
Dean
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Good afternoon. I am Dr. Janet Allan, Dean of the University of Maryland School of Nursing, and it is my pleasure to welcome all of you here this afternoon.

In case you missed the huge banner, it is indeed National Nurses Week, and I would like to extend my gratitude to all nurses and nursing students.

Governor Whitman, we are honored that the Environmental Protection Agency selected the University of Maryland Baltimore as the final stop-on its "Listening Tour."

This School of Nursing has a long-standing focus and commitment to environmental health

Ongoing research to prevent environmental disease by increasing the numbers of nursing professionals who can recognize environmental etiologies and risk factors, and promote health through risk reduction and control strategies
A newly established Environmental Health Track in Community Health Nursing Masters Program
and the innovative EnviR.N. Program, which specifically educates nursing professionals on the relationship between environmental health and nursing.
This program is the first in the country!

As nurses, we are extremely attentive to our most vulnerable populations, including of course, the frail elderly.

As the audience is well aware, this population is extremely susceptible to biological contaminants that may appear in our food and drinking water.

Higher prevalence of chronic lung problems in our elderly population places them at increased risk when our air pollution exceeds acceptable standards. Baltimore, like many other urban areas, exceeds acceptable standards each year.

There is a need to engage our health professional community in order to understand the relationship between the environment and health for appropriate diagnoses and treatment of environmentally related, health problems.

I hope that the Aging Initiative will include outreach to health professionals and invite dialogue in order to develop pollution standards that protect our frail elderly and other at risk populations.

The effects of environmental health hazards on older persons and the impact that a rapidly aging population will have on the environment are certainly two vital issues.

I commend the EPA for recognizing their importance and taking proactive steps to address them before they become critical.

We face two simultaneous trends-a rapidly aging population and a growing number of environmental concerns. These two trends do not simply run parallel . . . but rather interact and intersect.

Older Americans-even those in good health-are more susceptible to health problems associated with environmental pollutants.

At the same time, when people age their life-style changes. Where they choose to live and how they travel have effects on the environment.

The EPA initiative launched to examine these treads is as important as it is ambitious.

I am confident you will receive a great deal of valuable input here today.

I look forward to a productive and informative meeting.

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