GreenTown eyes healthier Elgin

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

ELGIN — By looking at one hypothetical child’s annual checkup, Dr. Richard Jackson can illustrate what is wrong with how communities are planned.

Jackson, chair of the School of Health at the University of California at Los Angeles, uses the example of a 10-year-old boy who is at the 50th percentile for height — average for his age — but who is at the 95th percentile for weight — obese. That same boy likely has high blood pressure, is borderline diabetic, and is depressed, he said.

A pediatrician such as himself would suggest putting the boy on a diet — no sugary soda pop, no sugary snacks except for special occasions, and starting to walk or bike to school, Jackson said.

But two months later, the same boy might have lost just a pound, and many of the suggestions made by the doctor just don’t work for that family in that community.

“They can’t change the food at school, his day is too full, there is no time for exercise, he’s not good at sports because he is overweight, and there is no place for him to walk,” Jackson said.

That is what is wrong with the way communities have been planned post-World War II, said Jackson, one of the keynote speakers Thursday at GreenTown, a symposium on sustainable development and design held at The Centre of Elgin. About 250 people from agencies and communities all over the region attended the event.

Jackson’s talk was sponsored by Elgin Community College and its Sustainability Safety and Career Technologies school. In addition to speaking to the symposium, Jackson met with four students from Elgin High School teacher Deb Perryman’s environmental classes.

“How we shape our environment shapes our health,” Jackson said.

Americans now live — and spend a majority of their time — in places shaped by people in the past. And he said much of the environment we live in was shaped to better serve automobiles, not to walk or bike to our destinations.

Even many of the houses built in the mid-2000s during the housing boom illustrate that, he said — the garage is front and center.

“These problems are created by the decisions we are making in our lives,” he said.

The obesity problem for his one hypothetical child can be multiplied by 50 million to illustrate why American children are becoming more obese.

“The environment is rigged against the child, and the doctor” treating him, Jackson said.

Encouraging activity

Elgin has begun to make strides against this type of health crisis, he said, including creating bike paths and open spaces where children can play outside.

“You can run around with your children and play Frisbee. You are the health leaders,” Jackson said.

More has to be done, he said, including changing how neighborhoods are laid out, putting sidewalks back into neighborhoods, and using federal transportation funding to encourage active transportation — walking or biking to the destination.

Even how schools were designed — beginning about 50 years ago — has impacted childhood health, Jackson said.

At that time, he said, planners decided children would be better off in distant, big-box schools with no windows so children wouldn’t be distracted by looking outside. Neither could they walk or bike to school.

“What they found is the kids were less happy, they didn’t learn as well, and teachers were less happy,” Jackson said.

Obesity is a threat to the nation’s security, he said, as the U.S. military has to turn down applicants who are obese and can’t meet fitness requirements.

Even air quality has changed kids’ health, he said. Children who live in areas with more carbon dioxide in the air are more likely to have respiratory illnesses such as asthma.

“The more we pave, the hotter it becomes,” Jackson said. “The hotter it gets, the lower the air quality.”

When Atlanta hosted the Olympics, the city asked residents to cut back on driving. When there was a 30 percent decrease in driving, there was a 30 percent increase in air quality and a corresponding decrease in asthma among children, he added.