Community Growth and Public Health

by Michael Barnaby
 

OUR county grows at the amazing rate of 500 to 1,000 men, women and children every month.  They come for the weather, they come for jobs, come for many reasons – including what is generally referred to as our “quality of life.”  A rather nebulous term, “quality of life” can be defined various ways, but a fair definition would seem to be contained in the Lee County Smart Growth Task Force’s Vision Statement, “(reaching) a harmonious balance between economic development, environmental sustainability and community livability, to provide a legacy for future generations.”

The Task Force – as does the public health department – looks at groups and populations.  Perhaps a zip code, or a region, or voting district.  Trends are studied, models developed and forecast made, all with that goal of “reaching a harmonious balance between economic development, environmental sustainability and community livability.”

            How we fare only time tells.  Hopefully, our quality of life will continue to thrive, and perhaps even improve as we grow.  But “our” is a plural word and “quality of life” an abstraction.  Yet it’s the individual, each of us singularly, concerned with our own health, well-being and quality of life, that enjoys the benefits of living in one of America’s fastest growing counties.

            Community growth and individual health are directly and closely related.  “The diseases of the 21^st century will be ‘chronic’ diseases, those that steal vitality and productivity, and consume time and money.”  That statement, by Dr. Richard J. Jackson, Director of the National Center for Environmental Health, isn’t opinion.  It’s clearly fact, with vast bodies of evidence backing it.    This, in itself, we may find to be interesting, perhaps thought provoking.  But the balance of his statement, “These diseases - heart disease, diabetes, obesity, asthma, and depression - are diseases that can be moderated by how we build our human environment,” should definitely be considered as food for thought, hinting as it does at the more negative potential of growth, along with its benefits and inevitability.

            Every time a new vehicle drives our streets, whenever we put in new roads, a new development, golf course or high rise, it has an actual health effect on each of us as individuals, real and measurable, and not just on “the environment” or the “quality of life.”  A dramatic demonstration of this occurred during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.  Due to the event, vehicle traffic was kept at artificially low levels by city authorities; a later study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that during the games peak ozone concentrations in the air decreased by nearly 28% as weekday morning traffic counts dropped by 22.5%.  And the number of asthma emergency events dropped by 41.6%.  Non-asthma medical events showed no drop.  Heavy traffic causes more than aggravation.

            Where in most of Lee County’s towns and cities do you find that location’s center?  Not geographically, but it’s focus?  Ten people will give ten different answers.  The point is that whether it’s a mall or university or grocery store, you probably drive to it.  That’s how we build – for cars as much as for people.  We don’t walk to destinations, and as a result over half of us are overweight, as are thirteen per cent of our children.  Children walking to school has become merely a quaint memory. 

Quality of life issues are in reality “quality of health” subjects, and should be considered in county growth plans.  Our physical health and that of our children will be directly reflected in how we choose to develop our county land.  In 1997, Career Press named Fort Myers-Cape Coral as on the nation’s "50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family."  It truly is.  We should work to make it one of the healthiest, as well, as we continue to grow and develop the land.

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