Community Health There Are Many

Community Health

There are many state and federal organizations that might be useful in preventing problems associated with radon exposure. If a radon health problem surfaced in my community, I would examine the various local, state, and federal organizations that provided me with information. The federal organization that would be the logical starting point is the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA offers a wealth of resources related to radon, including a citizen's guide, an EPA-drawn special map of radon risk zones, a buyers and sellers guide to radon for homeowners and prospective buyers, and information about where citizens can get tested for radon in order to prevent problems. The EPA has hotlines for communities impacted by radon, as well as other resources for citizen advocacy. This compendium of knowledge and resources makes the EPA the logical first choice.

From the EPA Website, I can then find links to local and state organizations that might be able to help me devise an intervention program in my community. The EPA website guides me toward what organizations exist to serve the needs of individuals and community leaders. For example, there are listings for the EPA Radon Program in Georgia, including the Georgia Dept. Of Community Affairs and the Georgia Department of Community Health. These organizations can then help locate whatever it is I may determine is the most pressing need, such as testing. A state-specific radon map is available to help show which communities are at highest risk, and if my community is identified as one of those, I would wonder why I did not know this problem beforehand. If my community is not identified as a highest risk area, I could still discover ways of mitigating the problem. The EPA also offers a list of construction and land developer links to companies committed to eliminating radon.

In terms of health care intervention, I would need to take a more localized approach. It would be helpful to have public awareness campaigns designed to help community residents be aware of the need to test their homes and their bodies for radon content. Funding from federal, state, and local sources might be available to establish a public awareness campaign. In fact, a public awareness campaign related to radon might be sponsored by a public health organization including but not limited to the Environmental Protection Agency. The National Institutes of Health might also provide the means by which to devise effective public health awareness campaigns as well as specific intervention programs. In fact, the National Institutes of Health also offer materials that I could publish in lieu of a community-specific guide. These documents offer general information that homeowners might be happy to have, and they are available in Spanish as well as English (National Institutes of Health, 2013). I might need to analyze the demographics of the community to determine the most appropriate methods of intervention. This would require access to census information, from the United States Census Bureau.