Beautiful Ruin: Creating Healthfields

Multiple programs promote redevelopment of land reuse sites, which are environmentally impacted or potentially contaminated sites. Historically, such programs have focused primarily on economic development. However, public health is an important consideration to address not only sustainable redevelopment but also health inequity and disparities. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's (ATSDR) Land Reuse Health Program is a special program to promote broad public health improvements through safe land reuse and redevelopment. Land reuse sites are virtually in every community in the U.S. and are a global problem. Brownfields are the greatest number of land reuse sites. With estimates of over 450,000 land reuse sites across the U.S., most communities suffer the burden of blight and contamination associated with these sites. ATSDR promotes and practices Healthfields Redevelopment: The safe reuse of environmentally distressed land to reduce exposures to contaminants and to improve overall health in the community. In this chapter, I highlight Navajo Nation Healthfields activities using ATSDR's 5-step Land Reuse Strategy to Safely Reuse Land and Improve Health (5-step Land Reuse Model) and describe some of ATSDR's Healthfields projects and related tools and resources for communities to create their own Healthfields practice.