There was much to appreciate about the APHA 2008 meeting in San Diego, but two sessions that started off the meeting will stand out in my mind for a long time.
On Saturday we were supposed to have a Trade and Health tour of Tijuana, but because of increased violence there the trip was called off. Instead, Tijuana came to us. Over the course of three hours we heard from some inspiring environmental health efforts (a successful community effort to clean up a disgusting toxic waste dump) and occupational health work (a maquila worker-turned-activist). The last hour was a fantastic film that I highly recommend to anyone interested in either or these topics:
Maquilopolis
It is a documentary of the two groups we heard from during the first part of the meeting — available on the web for $27 we were told. Check out these links: NY Times, Yahoo.
The second “best thing” was Michael Marmot’s opening session. I thought it was one of the most compelling cases I have heard for the importance of social and economic determinants of health, given by a master of the topic. It was worth the trip itself.
And then San Diego itself was hard to take…the weather, the ocean view, the charming neighborhoods.
Let’s go there every year!
IH CONNECT 