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Environmental Health Sciences Center

Community Engagement Core (CEC)

URMC / EHSC / Community Engagement Core / Community Projects and Partnerships / Community Environmental Health Priorities

Community Environmental Health Priorities

Katrina at the CAB meeting writing on a board

What we did

In 2024, the CEC worked with our Community Advisory Board (CAB) to identify priority environmental health issues for the City of Rochester and the Finger Lakes region. A list of priorities was sourced from a free-response survey and then organized by CEC staff with feedback from CAB members into a list of 9 priorities for the City of Rochester and 8 for the Finger Lakes region. We then asked our CAB to rank the identified priorities in order of their importance in 2024 and, considering the effects of climate change, 10 years in the future in 2034.

Download the report

What we found

CAB-identified community environmental health priorities for the City of Rochester in 2024:

  1. Housing quality and environmental exposures such as lead paint, mold, etc.
    (72% of respondents ranked this in the top 2)
  2. Difficulty accessing resources (such as healthy food and healthcare) due to the built environment, including lack of alternative transportation infrastructure
    (88% of respondents ranked this in the top 3)
  3. Inequities in environmental exposures and access to resources (environmental justice)
    (100% of respondents ranked this in the top 5)
  4. Greenspace and urban tree canopy
  5. Heat (occupational exposure and/or indoor and outdoor temperatures)
  6. Legacy pollution (such as brownfields, hazardous waste, contaminated soil)
  7. Outdoor air quality
  8. Drinking water quality
  9. Water infrastructure and flooding

During this process, several overarching themes emerged in addition to these priorities. Climate change impacts many environmental health issues. Social determinants of health, such as safe neighborhoods, access to healthcare, education, violence, and poverty, interact with these issues. Inequities in exposure and access to resources, or environmental justice, was identified as both a priority and an overarching issue related to other environmental health priorities. Suggested solutions included workforce development, information and education, and policy change.

Download a summary of the key findings

Download the report for future rankings for the City of Rochester and the list of priorities for the Finger Lakes region.

Did you use this report or find this webpage useful? We’d love to hear about it!
Please consider sharing how you used it by contacting us at Rebecca_lauzon@urmc.rochester.edu