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.  

A presentation detailing Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEP) and a limited description of the EJ Grants Program. SEPs are projects that benefit the environment or public health & safety, funded through environmental enforcement actions. These are distributed to local governments and nonprofits. The presentation's SEP portion will include funding details, qualifying criteria, data, and examples. The EJ Grants Program redistributes penalty revenue from enforcement actions to disproportionately impacted communities harmed by air quality violations. These are funded by the Community Impact Cash Fund (via penalties collected from entities that violate air pollution control laws, rules, and permits). Details will include funding, criteria, and rhythm of grant cycles.

Love My Air Denver's mission is to provide Denver’s diverse communities with visible, accessible, and actionable air quality information. Initiated in 2018, the program has historically partnered with schools and community organizations to accomplish this mission. Now, Love My Air Denver is expanding to work with three community health clinics to open a new door to engage with their communities and promote awareness of air quality in the healthcare setting.
Each clinic will host an AQSync air monitor measuring O3, NOx, PM1, PM2.5, PM10, CO2, CO, and tVOCs. In addition to streaming the real-time data to our app and website, we are designing an interactive educational kiosk to display current air quality conditions, communicate health impacts of poor air quality, and describe local sources of air pollution. Positioned in clinic waiting rooms, these kiosks will enhance outreach and education efforts of clinic staff, helping patients understand and manage air quality challenge. By engaging clinic staff and patients in the design of the kiosk and outreach plans, we hope to develop innovative ways to connect with community members using messaging that resonates with their experiences living in Denver.

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.

Whether conducting a death investigation, inspecting a restaurant, trying to catch a stray dog, following up on a chemical spill, or taking stream samples, working in the field is essential to maintaining public health—but it also presents unique risks to the employees carrying out these tasks. This presentation focuses on practical strategies for keeping public health workers safe during their daily operations. Attendees will learn about job hazard analyses, different types of hazards, proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE), situational awareness, and best practices for working in diverse environments. Whether you're navigating hazardous sites, interacting with the public, or conducting investigations in high-risk areas, this session will equip you with the knowledge and tools to stay safe and secure while fulfilling your vital role.

In collaboration with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), Colorado State University (CSU) conducted a comprehensive set of on-site assessments to evaluate indoor air quality and ventilation in Colorado workplaces. This program aimed to understand the distribution and concentration of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) across different non-residential environments, with the ultimate goal of improving indoor air quality. Our team deployed summa canisters to collect week-long air samples at eighteen of the fifty workplace sites selected for the program from October 2022 to May 2024. These air samples were analyzed at CSU to identify and quantify >50 unique VOC species. Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC) sensors were co-located with summa canisters. These dual measurements provided a robust dataset, enabling us to identify prevalent compounds and evaluate their potential associations with specific workplace activities. Our initial findings reveal significant variability in VOC profiles and concentrations across different facility types, regions, and seasons. Specific VOCs will be presented based on their abundance and potential health hazard. Our presentation will summarize all analytes and their concentrations, alongside comparative analyses of indoor to outdoor VOC ratios. Additionally, we will discuss sites with unique VOC types and levels, as well as those with uniform profiles, presenting possible hypotheses for these observations. By integrating our data with existing literature, we aim to highlight normal VOC ranges, potential sources, and associated health risks in non-residential settings. This work improves understanding VOC dynamics in diverse work environments and provides insights into improving indoor air quality. Our findings contribute to filling knowledge gaps and inform regulatory strategies for VOC management in workplaces, emphasizing the relevance of hazard ratios for health risk assessment. The presentation will conclude with recommendations for future research directions and practical applications of our findings to enhance workplace health and safety standards.

Gregg started his career focused on air toxics monitoring and modeling in the Denver Metro region.  Over that time, Gregg has explored and analyzed numerous air toxics and ozone precursor datasets.  Trends for most air toxics and ozone precursors that have been monitored are down significantly over that time.  For ozone, we have seen maximum measured 1-hr concentrations decrease over time but the 8-hour average metric for ozone compliance has been uneven and stubborn.  Wildfire smoke, especially during hot and dry summers in western North America appears to have some impact on ozone during bad fire years, but the relationship is still very unclear.  

With new air toxics monitoring in place or on the way across Colorado, Gregg will offer insights to be on the lookout for as monitoring programs expand.  

Love My Air – Colorado Local Entity Air Network (LMA – CLEAN) is a proven regional approach to local community air monitoring, community engagement, and policy systems and environmental change to reduce air pollution and promote air quality awareness. This presentation provides a high-level overview of the project, current progress, and future directions. LMA – CLEAN presentation opens an opportunity for further discussion on community air monitoring work as part of public health purpose on improving and protecting the health of people and communities.

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.

On June 2, 2022, House Bill (HB) 22-1244, Public Protections from Toxic Air Contaminants, was signed into law. The law directs the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to develop policies and regulations to reduce public exposure to air toxics. Initially, up to five priority toxic air contaminants (PTACs) will be identified and health based standards created for the PTACs.  The bill also outlines requirements for additional air monitoring and requires certain sources of air pollution to submit annual emission reports. The Toxicology and Environmental Epidemiology Office at CPDHE has been working closely with the Air Pollution Control Division to develop processes for the risk-based prioritization of toxic air contaminants and creation of health based standards.