Programs & Products
Our staff attorneys, city planners, and policy analysts work primarily in four key program areas at PHLP:
Healthy Planning
Growing evidence shows the role neighborhood design plays in promoting access to healthy foods, physical activity, and other factors affecting public health. Our Planning for Healthy Places project focuses on community planning and economic development strategies.
Tobacco Control
Local, state, and federal laws have significantly reduced tobacco-related damage to public health. Our Technical Assistance Legal Center (TALC) focuses on tobacco control policy and legal issues, including policies on secondhand smoke exposure and the sale and promotion of tobacco products.
Childhood Obesity
Strong obesity policy interventions in schools and communities can help improve children’s access to healthy foods and opportunities for safe physical activity. Our National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity (NPLAN) empowers advocates and policy leaders with legally sound guidance and resources to make schools and communities healthier for children.
Climate Change
Rising global temperatures pose a tremendous threat to human health, but public health professionals have been largely left out of policy discussions on climate change. Our Global Climate Change Initiative works to engage the public health community with the tools and strategies they need to participate in climate change planning at the state, local, and regional levels.
Our staff has also worked on other public health policy issues as they’ve emerged, including legal concerns related to TB and pandemic flu, as well as policies supporting pharmaceutical access for people in need.
All of our work is built on the assumption that public health is, in large part, an outcome of institutional and environmental policies that are amenable to change.
Contact us to find out how our staff can help you advance your public health policy goals.
Publications
PHLP offers a variety of products, including fact sheets, model documents, reports, legal memos, and presentations. You can search our publications according to product type, a specific policy area, or a combination of the two. Choose from the categories in the drop-down menus for each field. You may also enter a keyword in the search box to narrow the results. Click “Search” to display your results.
10 Ways to Limit Tobacco
This comprehensive yet easy-to-use brochure describes 10 legal policy options for local governments to limit tobacco use, sales, and marketing in their communities. Retailer licensing, sponsorship bans, private enforcement, and other laws and ordinances are outlined. Includes a colorful 17" x 11" poster illustrating a tobacco-free city, which acts as a quick guide to policies and laws applicable to different community settings.
A Legal Primer for the Obesity Prevention Movement
Public health advocates and scientists working on obesity prevention policy face challenges in balancing legal rights, individual freedom, and societal health goals. In particular, the US Constitution and the 50 state constitutions place limits on the ability of government to act, even in the best interests of the public.
A Look at State Rules Affecting Joint Use Agreements
Does your state allow – or possibly even encourage or require – opening school grounds for use by the community? In these lean economic times, it makes sense to find out and take advantage of state laws that may work for your community when considering joint use agreements. These products from NPLAN provide an overview laws addressing the joint use of school facilities in all 50 states.
