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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Ben Kelley1, Anthony Robbins, MD, MPA2, Richard A. Daynard, JD, PhD3, James N. Hyde, MA, SM2, and Wendy E. Parmet3. (1) Public Health Advocacy Institute, 102 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115, 617 441 3226, benjkelley@aol.com, (2) Department of Family Medicine & Community Health, Tufts University School of Medicine, 136 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111, (3) School of Law, Northeastern University, 400 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
Since the Cigarette Papers by Stanley Glantz et.al., lawyers, public health professionals, and legislators have evinced new interest in systematic repositories of information, that organize and present documents about health hazards. The Archives for Public Health & the Law Project, a joint endeavor of the Public Health Advocacy Institute and our faculties of law and public health, is creating such a system, starting with automobile hazards where documentary materials and collaborators are readily available. After establishing this archive, the project will build on the experience to develop similar collections for other causes of disease and injury.
Manufacturers and government regulators for years have known what could and should be done about many product hazards—one need only look at the documents, if one can find them. In the case of crashworthiness misdeeds and omissions, revealing documents exist by the thousands, but they have never been brought together in one place to be organized, analyzed, edited and published in an accessible, annotated format. They are comprised of internal company memos, reports and committee meeting minutes; government docket submissions, regulatory rulemaking proposals and analyses; discovery production in litigation, and more. Design and performance hazards that generate severe, avoidable injuries are acknowledged in the documents--and all too often brushed off or explained away, along with the fixes that would correct them in existing vehicles and eliminate them in new ones. These documents will be core of our archive.
We will describe the strategy and progress of this project.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Public Health Advocacy, Regulations
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: The Public Health Advocacy Institute, a non-profit, joint-venture of the law faculty at Northeastern and the public health faculty at Tufts.
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: I am acting executive director