Federal, state, and local park agencies across the nation have faced budget cuts in recent years as a result of the economic downturn and sequestration, resulting in park closures, reduced hours, staffing cuts, and deferred maintenance. For example, California faced closure of 70 state parks in 2012 to trim $22 million from the strapped state budget. Although most parks were saved by contributi...

BACKGROUND Public parks can be an important setting for physical activity promotion, but to increase park use and the activity levels of park users, the crucial attributes related to active park use need to be defined. Not only user characteristics and structural park attributes, but also characteristics of the surrounding neighborhood are important to examine. Furthermore, internationally comp...

Objectives: To examine vehicle related mortality trends of children in Japan; and to investigate how environmental modifications such as the installation of public parks and pavements are associated with these trends. Design: Poisson regression was used for trend analysis, and multiple regression modelling was used to investigate the associations between trends in environmental modifications an...

BACKGROUND Pathogens with the zoonotic potential to infect humans, such as Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter coli and Chlamydophila psittaci, can be found in feral pigeons (Columba livia). Given the high density of these birds in the public parks and gardens of most cities, they may pose a direct threat to public health. METHODS A total of 118 pigeons were captured in three samplings carrie...

Visceral and cutaneous larva migrans are parasitic zoonoses caused by the infection of larval nematodes Toxocara sp. and Ancylostoma sp. respectively. The objective of this study was to investigate the contamination by Toxocara sp. eggs and Ancylostoma sp. eggs and larva of soil samples collected from public parks and children's playground areas in state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, using both Baer...

The Qatari free-wirelessinternet-park (iPark) concept was launched in 2007 under the banner of e-government in order to make public services more accessible to citizens. The iPark initiative is implemented in a number of public parks and provides free connection to the citizens’ Internet ready devices, such as laptops and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) at any time of the day. The first such ...

The preservation of land as national parks has been arguably the most successful feature of a nationwide increase in environmental awareness, referred to as the “greening” of America. The many and varied units in the national park system provide collective reassurance that, despite environmental excesses in other areas, the people of the nation understand the value of nature in its purportedly ...

The Board of Parks and Recreation in Vancouver, BC approved a smoke-free bylaw in the city's parks, beaches and recreational facilities, effective 1 September 2010. We analyzed local news coverage and portrayal of the bylaw to understand the potential influence of news media on public perception of the bylaw in order to inform the media advocacy work of public health interest groups. We compile...