CEHA 2024

 In Denver's Residential Housing (RH) Program, responsiveness to community needs has been traditionally complaint-driven. However, the Proactive Property Inspections (PPI) initiative introduces a paradigm shift by actively engaging with residents proactively. Through this initiative, RH teams conduct door-to-door visits, directly engaging with residents to identify and address housing health and safety concerns. This proactive approach aims to bridge gaps in accessibility and equity, ensuring that all residents, regardless of their ability to lodge complaints, receive necessary support. By fostering direct community engagement and intervention, PPI not only enhances living conditions but also strengthens community trust and collaboration. This talk will delve into the implementation, impact, and future potential of PPI as a vital tool in promoting equitable housing standards and community well-being within Denver.

In our lifetime, we’ve seen a significant increase in the popularity of body art, defined as tattooing, piercing, branding, scarification, and cosmetic tattooing. There are now over twenty-six thousand body art facilities in the United States alone; a number that has been steadily increasing at a rate of about 3% per year over the last decade. There are no federal regulations for body art or artists, so the regulatory responsibility of these facilities falls mainly on state and local health departments. Rapid industry growth means increasing stress on environmental health professionals.  Keeping up with the ever-evolving industry and high turnover of public health personnel has proved difficult for local health departments. They often do not have all the information, support, or resources needed to effectively do their jobs.

This presentation will discuss the resources surrounding body art that are available to environmental health professionals in Colorado. Resources include the newly released Body Art Model Code and Annex, the BAMC Adoption Toolkit, inspector job aids, asynchronous and in-person Body Art Facility Inspector Training (BAFIT) opportunities, NEHA Body Art Policy Statements, NEHA Body Art Newsletter, Association of Professional Piercers (APP) Core Essentials online courses, industry trainings, and more. These resources can be utilized by jurisdictions across the country to update code language, deepen understanding through education, enhance body art regulation programs, ultimately protecting public health. During this presentation, we will give an overview of these resources, explain exactly where they can be accessed, and discuss how the resources can be used by regulators. There will be an opportunity for regulators to submit new resource development ideas as well. Having been involved in the process of creating and gathering body art resources, we understand how difficult they are to find and that many of them are under-utilized. We want to give environmental health professionals tangible knowledge and tools that positively impact their ability to protect public health.  

Colorado Public Health Works is a groundbreaking AmeriCorps Apprenticeship program providing career entry into the field of public health from local communities throughout Colorado. In 2022, the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment became the first local public health agency in the nation to combine a dual community health worker apprenticeship program with an AmeriCorps service - providing competitive pay, benefits, and career tailored career trajectories for young professionals. This is a new program that has not gained a great deal of momentum from environmental health agencies and other Colorado partners. This talk will aid interested environmental health leaders the how to of partnering with statewide and regional partners to secure dollars for AmeriCorps members and highlight the current environmental health work being conducted by Denver AmeriCorps members. 

The widespread abuse of Methamphetamine (Meth) and Fentanyl has grown exponentially in the last decade to worsen the current Opioid Epidemic.  The number of drug-related deaths has also grown exponentially, mainly driven by Fentanyl, with devastating impacts to countless families and businesses. This awareness-level presentation covers basic information for these two drugs to include: definitions, an Epidemic overview, methods of abuse and overdose effects, signs of meth usage/manufacturing, and some precautions to follow with best practices to help protect yourself from risk of exposure.

Currently, only four public health agencies in the State of Colorado have an inspection program to respond to cases of children with elevated blood lead levels, or lead poisoning. As other counties are beginning to consider or develop lead inspection programs, please join this timely presentation to look at some of the common, and not so common sources, that contribute to lead poisoning in children. This presentation will dig into real-world examples of lead hazards identified during investigations, including housing, occupations or hobbies, and cultural items such as folk medicines and cookware. 

A case study presentation of two challenging public accommodations that included a collaborative effort between public health, regional building, fire department, and sheriff SWAT...resulting in license revocation, immediate closure, and extensive capital improvements. This will include some programmatic barriers, positive outcomes, and substantive next steps!

 This presentation will cover the recently finalized Environmental Standards for Appliances (ESA) and Building Performance Standards (BPS) in Colorado, and their impacts on hospitals and K-12 schools. The ESA, which includes the Clean Lighting Act banning the sale of compact fluorescent lightbulbs by January 1, 2025, aims to enhance resource efficiency by prohibiting less efficient appliances and products. The BPS sets ambitious targets for energy and emission reductions in large buildings by 2026 and 2030. Large public buildings, including K-12 schools, may need to invest in energy-efficient implementations to comply with these standards, particularly when construction or renovation projects trigger BPS thresholds.
In addition, the presentation will address the critical issue of food waste in healthcare and educational institutions. The environmental, economic, and social benefits of effective food waste management will be explored, along with the current challenges of food waste in these settings. Actionable strategies such as inventory management, portion control, food donation programs, and the use of technology for food tracking will be discussed. By sharing success stories and practical insights from hospitals and schools that have implemented food waste reduction programs, attendees will gain valuable knowledge and resources to adopt similar practices in their own institutions.

Here in Pueblo Colorado the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment (PDPHE) Residential housing program is to ensure adequate health and safety conditions are maintained by the owners/landlords for tenants. PDPHE receives complaints from tenants and landlords regarding maintenance, health, and safety concerns within a residence/structure and if a violation is observed, PDPHE will enforce repairs to be made in accordance with the International Property Maintenance Code. Will discuss how these complaints often result in collaborating with other local agencies and give examples of some of our most challenging cases which include hoarding, backed up sewage, animal hoarding etc.