ABSTRACT:
From frontline Communities to Courtrooms health evidence is shaping and strengthening, policy change and accountability efforts within the environmental justice movement. After many years of advocacy aimed at implementing the Highveld Air Quality Management Plan in Mpumalanga South Africa, communities impacted by air pollution launched a constitutional challenge arguing that the toxic ambient air pollution results in the breach of their right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and wellbeing. This effort strengthened their advocacy by involving health professionals, who lend their expert voice and influence this successful campaign. A Public Health & Equity Resource Navigator (PHERN) has been created to support advocacy for public health authority, the bedrock for implementing the work of Public Health, the legal and regulatory power that Public Health has to do its jobs. Public Health’s vision is only achievable when the authority, ability, and funding are in place to act. This requires intentional and sustained advocacy. Health Care Without Harm’s (HCWH) Strategy for securing behavioral institutional change in the health care sector as a model for broader societal change: 1. Choose a single unsustainable practice as a target, 2. Describe the health burden of the practice. 3. Identify the clinical activities that contribute. 4. Describe safer substitutes. 5. Secure the support of public health and clinical provider organizations. 6. Describe local health care sector substitution experiences. 7. Build coalitions within the health sector pledged to serve as models. 8. Focus health sector advocacy on substituting these practices in society as a whole.. HCWH’s experience with this methodology is evidence of the effectiveness of this approach to improving the environment and promoting equity.