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Exposure to pollution and indoor contaminants
Health facility siting
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Industrial/waste facility siting
Mental health
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Safety (auto
bicyclist)
pedestrian
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The way in which we design our communities directly impacts public health. Conventional community design, with its wide streets and absence of sidewalks, contributes to increased vehicle use and vehicle miles traveled (VMT)even for short trips. In the past 20 years, VMT has almost doubled and continues to increase faster than our population growth. In 1991, air pollution from highway VMT was estimated to have caused between 20,000 and 40,000 cases of respiratory illness. Most susceptible to respiratory illness are children. There has been a 160% increase in asthma in children under five years of age in the past 15 years. It is the leading cause of hospitalization for chronic diseases and of school absenteeism.
Growth patterns also affect the quality of the water we drink. Development activity results in the conversion of undeveloped land to impervious surface. This process reduces natural fillters such as wetlands, ultimately contributing to increased volumes of pollutants such as pesticides, fertilizers, and heavy metals in stormwater runoff. The threat to human health occurs when such runnoff enters a water body and ultimately into the drinking water supply.
Most communities today were designed to accommodate the automobile and do not have many sidewalks to facilitate walking and biking. These development patterns has ultimately ultimate caused sedentary behavior because of the reliance on the automobile and cost the public valuable opportunities to be physically active through walking and bicycling to school, work or for errands. Even more alarming, current growth patterns are causing a rise in obesity in both adults and children. Today, nearly one is four Americans is obese and 60 percent of Americans are overweight. Over the last three decades, the percentage of overweight children has doubled.
Smart growth is an integrative solution that addresses these trends and promotes a healthier, vibrant community. It helps reduce health threats from exposure to pollution and indoor contaminants, improves pedestrian safety, and engages residents and workers in a more active, healthy lifestyle. By promoting compact, walkable neighborhoods with mixed uses, walking and bicycling become viable transportation options.
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