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The Built Environment - Follow the Money
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Richard Rabin, coordinator of occupational lead poisoning registry MA Div. of Occupational Safety
Send letter to journal:
rickrabin{at}rcn.com Richard Rabin
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Dr. Jackson's article is a good introduction to the connection between the built environment and health. The article makes the point that such environments are constructed because conscious decisions are made to do so. However, missing from the editorial was any explanation of why such decisions are made. Without knowing the motivations and methods for shaping our environment, we cannot hope to make effective changes. In many cases the motivation is economic. Automobile and oil companies profit from the sale of additional cars and gasoline when new highways are built. Real estate, insurance and related enterprises grow richer when relatively low-rent industrial areas are converted to vast stretches of high-rise office buildings. Public transportation declined during the 20th century in part because of the manipulations of the General Motors Corporation. The biography of Robert Moses, the "czar" of urban development in New York City in the middle of the last century, is instructive in how our urban environment can be radically altered to benefit "special interests." Research into the influence of the built environment on our physical and mental health is, of course, vital. However, scientific knowledge and good faith efforts to apply it must be accompanied by a thorough understanding of the economic and political forces that shape our daily lives. |
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