CALPHO e-News November 27, 2019

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--  E-News   November 27, 2019  --  Top News                                State PFAS Response: from CDPHE Executive Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan CDPHE has recently completed a PFAS action plan, centering around the discharge of Class B firefighting foam. The foam, which contains PFAS chemicals, has the potential to contaminate groundwater and drinking water.  The Action Plan has aspects of drinking water testing and ongoing surveillance for PFAS, preventing continued releases, preventing the use of Class B firefighting foam for drills, technical assistance, and the potential for state-level regulations.  The department was also recently awarded state supplemental funding to assist smaller water systems, private wells and local fire districts with initial testing.  CDPHE Executive Director Jill Ryan, and Emerging Contaminants Coordinator David Dani, will attend the December CALPHO meeting to discuss the plan and get input from LPHA directors.   Sign up here to receive updates from the PFAS narrative policy workgroup.       Upcoming Events  Click HERE for full event calendar 2019 LiveWell HEAL Summit December 3 Denver, CO LiveWell Colorado’s HEAL Summit is the premier annual convening that brings together Healthy Eating and Active Living (HEAL) leaders from throughout the state of Colorado and beyond.  --REGISTER--> 2019 Air Quality and Climate Change Panel January 16 8:30am - 11:30am Denver, CO Featuring the Union of Concerned Scientists’ science director, Brenda Ekwurzel, this panel will be held at the History Colorado Center and will connect the dots between local and national climate and air quality data with public health impacts. --REGISTER--> Click HERE for full event calendar  Public Health Transformation                                          Upcoming Transformation Meetings & Events Here are the upcoming meetings for November and December. Please email Tracy for attendance information: Transformation Steering Committee:  December 3, 11:00am – 1:30pm, Zoom and TBD  Transformation office hours – Cost Assessment: December 9, 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Zoom Transformation office hours – Advocacy: December 17 10:00am to 11:00am CALPHO Transformation Meeting: December 19, 1:00pm – 4:00pm Zoom only! CALPHO Transformation Meeting: January 21, 1:00pm – 4:00pm  News & Current Events                                              State Climate Change Action: Multiple Efforts Under a Big Tent At the November 21 Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) meeting, representatives from multiple state agencies presented on their roles in reducing Colorado’s greenhouse gas emissions. The flurry of climate-related legislation during the 2019 session has initiated several efforts connected the same general goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 90% of 2005 levels by 2050. These reductions will necessarily happen in multiple sectors, including transportation, energy, agriculture, and oil & gas. The most responsibility falls to the Colorado Energy Office (COE), Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA), and CDPHE, which recently hired a director for its new climate division to coordinate the work.  2020 will be full of opportunities for CALPHO to participate and weigh in on these efforts, especially through AQCC and Air Pollution Control Division (APCD) rulemaking related to oil & gas, ozone, and greenhouse gas reporting (see tentative timeline here). Additionally, the Energy Office and Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will be starting a local government policy development effort. We will be closely monitoring these timelines and will work to keep you all informed about upcoming opportunities to participate and developments that might impact your work. Learn more about the roadmap from the AQCC meeting materials.    Public Health Works                                                     LPHA as Housing Strategist: Chaffee County’s Housing Policy Advisory Committee Affordable housing advocacy in Chaffee County gained significant momentum after its recognition as an economic development challenge, but its relation to health and equity helps to drive ongoing community participation. From an initial meeting supported by their economic development corporation, Chaffee’s housing advocates organized the Housing Policy Advisory Committee (HPAC). Chaffee County Public & Environmental Health (CCPEH) was there from the start, supporting early meetings and bringing a public health perspective. “We did not have any funding, just a lot of in-kind support and a passion to change the housing landscape in our county,” said CCPEH Director Andrea Carlstrom, who facilitated many of the early meetings herself.   As a result of HPAC’s early efforts,  Chaffee County established an Office of Housing, and hired a director for an initial two-year position supported with resources from each municipality. To accelerate collective efforts and raise-up health equity as central to their affordable housing challenges, CCPEH eventually secured funding from CDPHE’s Office of Health Equity, through their Health Disparities Grant Program.  “I saw the CDPHE Office of Health Equity funding opportunity as a way for us to legitimize the office (of housing) and strengthen the health and housing connection,” said Andrea, whose agency oversees the grant’s fiscal administration. This grant enabled an ongoing program of educational opportunities called Housing and Health: Building Equity and Opportunity. Their most recent event in Poncha Springs focused on entrepreneurial thinking around affordable housing solutions. Andrea has also published commentary in local media (recently in the Ark Valley Voice and Chaffee County Times) that explicitly discuss housing’s equity and health implications.  Multiple affordable housing projects connected to the HPAC are now underway in Chaffee, which is also making housing a central part of its next land use comprehensive plan. While public health is just one partner among many in this effort, it is clear that their capacity to devote long-term attention to the issue has been essential to its county-wide scope and sustainability. It is a great example of what can result when LPHAs have even modest resources to consistently engage their community. We plan to feature more of these success stories in the CALPHO newsletter, so please let us know about yours!    Federal Legislative Update from NACCHO                    Excerpted from NACCHO’s News from Washington  Continuing Resolution Passed to Extend Funding to Dec. 20 This week, Congress passed and the president signed a second short-term continuing resolution (CR) to continue to fund the federal government at FY2019 levels. The CR runs through December 20 and includes a one-month extension of the Community Health Center Fund, the National Health Service Corps, and the Teaching Health Center program. The CR also includes Medicaid funding for the Territories, clarification that $30 million of the unobligated amounts in the Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund may be transferred to Ebola preparedness and response activities, and funding for the personal responsibility education program (PREP) and the sexual risk avoidance program. After the Thanksgiving break, lawmakers will return to negotiations over final FY2020 funding for the twelve appropriations bills. Sticking points remain over the overall spending targets and funding for the border wall sought by the White House. House Committee Advances Public Health Bills This week, the Energy & Commerce Committee passed the Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act (HR 2339). This marks the first time that a full committee of Congress has voted to prohibit all flavored tobacco products, including flavored e-cigarettes and menthol cigarettes. The bill includes other strong provisions which would: Prohibit the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 21 nationwide. Prohibit online sales of tobacco products.  Extend advertising restrictions that currently apply to cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to other tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. Require the FDA to issue a final rule requiring graphic health warnings on cigarette packs and advertising by the court-ordered deadline of March 15, 2020.  In addition, the Committee passed the following bills to address the maternal mortality crisis, which has disproportionate impacts on women of color: Maternal Health Quality Improvement Act of 2019 (HR 4995), which would authorize funding for the  Alliance for Maternal Health Innovation; training on implicit bias for maternal health care providers; perinatal quality collaboratives; integrated services for pregnancy and postpartum women; rural obstetric networks; and rural maternal and obstetric care training. Helping Medicaid Offer Maternity Services (MOMS) Act of 2019 (HR 4996), which would give states the option to extend the length of continuous postpartum eligibility for Medicaid to 12 months and provide a 5% increase to a state's federal medical assistance percentage for the first year a state adopts the option.  Highlights from our Partners                                          Renowned Climate Scientist to Join Local Experts for January 16 Event  This Air Quality and Climate Panel Discussion will be held on January 16, from 8:30am to 11:30am at the History Colorado Center. Panelists and attendees will “discuss the impacts of air quality on public health and the link to climate change. We’ll connect the dots between local and national climate and air quality data with public health impacts.” Register here. Panelists are: BRENDA EKWURZEL, Director of Science, Union of Concerned Scientists JOHN PUTNAM, Director of Environmental Programs, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment DETLEV HELMIG, Associate Research Professor, Institute of Alpine and Arctic Research (INSTAAR) GABRIELLE PETRON, Research Scientist, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences NACO Webinar on Using Data to Serve High Utilizers Across Sectors The National Association of Counties is hosting its second webinar in its Stepping Up and Data Driven Justice series. “Using Data to Identify and Serve People who Frequently Utilize Health, Human Services and Justice Systems” is on December 5, from Noon to 1:15pm MST. The webinar will feature counties that have implemented policies and practices that identify frequent utilizers of these systems and use this information to connect people with appropriate treatment and services. Register here.     Opportunities Need Funding for a Specific, Defined Multi-Sector Data Project?  This is the 5th round of the Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH) Community Impact Contracts – Strategic, Timely, Actionable, Replicable, Targeted (CIC-START) funding opportunity. Up to 15 CIC-START contracts of up to $25,000 will be available to local collaborations to support targeted, short-term activities that build skills and capacity at the community or regional level to engage partners from multiple sectors in planning for shared data systems, systematically share data across sectors; design or implement initiatives based on shared multi-sector data. DASH is seeking applicants from established multi-sector partnerships. Deadline is December 6. Learn more and apply here.  Overdose Data to Action (Deadline: December 6) Economic Impact Initiative Grants (Deadline: on-going through local Rural Development office) The Colorado Health Foundation Funding Opportunities (Deadlines in February, June, and October) Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant Program (Deadline: on-going)  Books & More                                                                     Frameworks podcast series: Frame[s] of Mind Frame[s] of Mind explores how the FrameWorks Institute, a communications think tank based in Washington, DC, brings together different social science disciplines to make sense of social problems and better explain them. Their most recent episode is on elevating affordable housing as a social justice issue. Thank you for reading. If you have any comments or ideas for future CALPHO e-newsletters, please email us at info@calpho.org.  The purpose of this e-newsletter is to provide news updates, events and informational resources on hot topics in local public health and CALPHO. Any staff person of a CALPHO member agency is welcome to join our email list to receive this e-newsletter. If you have a colleague interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward this message to them. Copyright © Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials 2019, All rights reserved.   Our mailing address is: 1385 S. Colorado Blvd., Bldg. A, Suite 622 Denver, Colorado 80222

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