Citation

McGowan AK, Musicant GG, Williams SR, Niehaus VR. J. Law Med. Ethics 2015; 43 Suppl 1: 10-14.

Affiliation

Organized this session as a result of her position as a Senior Program Officer with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is now a Program Director and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assignee to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/jlme.12206

PMID

25846155

Abstract

Community-level legal and policy innovations or "experiments" can be important levers to improve health. States and localities are empowered through the 10th Amendment of the United States Constitution to use their police powers to protect the health and welfare of the public. This article describes innovative approaches to public health law and policy from Minneapolis and New Orleans, communities who have been honored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) for addressing health by focusing not solely on health care access and quality, but the wider environment, including transforming neighborhoods, schools, and businesses and addressing inequities. Specifically, this article discusses examples of how these cities have used public health legal and policy approaches and novel partnerships to promote healthy eating and active living, reduce exposure to secondhand smoke, and prevent violence.

Language: en