CDC Report Says Sprawl Is Sickening, Literally, to Americans

If hearing about sprawl day in and day out makes you sick, you won’t like what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says in Creating a Healthy Environment: The Impact of the Built Environment on Public Health.

The report’s authors,Richard J. Jackson and Chris Kochtitzky, claim a connection between suburbia’s lack of sidewalks and "the fact that we are an overweight, heart-disease-ridden society."

The report, published by Sprawl Watch and available at www.sprawlwatch.org, says the percentage of overweight Americans jumped from 47% in 1976 to 61% in 1999. Instances of asthma are also way up, the report says, as a direct result of fewer trees and air pollution from vehicles.

The NAHB points out that people often prefer the suburbs and that 2001 CDC statistics claim that suburban Americans are healthier than their urban and rural counterparts.