Anderson named
health chief

He has been working
for years on state
environmental problems

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

Bruce S. Anderson, who has been wrestling with Hawaii's environmental problems for 17 years, has been named the state's health director.

Gov. Ben Cayetano today announced his appointment of the deputy director for environmental health to succeed Dr. Lawrence Miike as head of the Department of Health.

"Dr. Anderson has done an excellent job helping to maintain the balance between economic development and environment," Cayetano said.

"His extensive record of experience, combined with his ability to understand, analyze and explain public health issues, are great assets needed to lead the department."

Cayetano also named Paula E. Yoshioka to continue as the agency's first deputy and Gary Gill to replace Anderson as deputy director for environmental health. Gill now heads the department's Environmental Quality Control Office.

Although his experience and expertise have been in the environmental area, Anderson expressed concern about broader state health issues.

"We need to get kids started right in life and I think we're all getting older and we need to ensure that the elderly have the care that they need," he said. "For the rest of us, we need nutritious foods, to exercise regularly and have a healthy lifestyle."

The Rev. Frank Chong, a chronic asthmatic and 25-year cancer survivor who is director of the Waikiki Health Center director, said, "We are learning more and more clearly that environment has a lot to do with health.

"Bruce probably is as good a person that you can find to help lead us in the direction of clean water and clean air and really help us develop a way in which we can take care of our environment for the next millennium."

Anderson joined the health department in 1981 after receiving a master's degree in public health from Yale and a doctorate in epidemiology from the University of Hawaii.

An "odd chain of events" led him into battle against environmental ills, he said. He started working in the Communicable Disease Division on such problems as leptospirosis and ciguatera fish poisoning.

The heptachlor crisis occurred about then and he was asked to head a small unit focusing on infectious diseases related to the environment, he said. That led to work on pesticides in drinking water and eventually his appointment as deputy director.

He served about 10 years in that job until the 1994 Legislature eliminated 10 deputy director positions -- his included.

Cayetano appointed him to return to his state post after he worked about four months as Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' environmental director.

Anderson said that he needs to learn more about consent decrees involving the State Hospital and mental health and education services to adolescents, but that he has been involved in discussions.

"These issues are consuming almost all our energy and time, not to mention resources," he said, adding that he wants to establish a special assistant position to insure compliance with court orders and coordination between departments.

He said he's concerned about substance abuse among children, which he believes reflects behavioral health problems. He wants to provide more support for parents of high-risk children and find innovative ways to prevent child abuse and domestic violence.

Anderson also would like to see more assisted living facilities as an alternative to nursing homes. He supports Cayetano's vision of a health care and wellness industry.

Anderson's own healthy lifestyle includes spending "every chance I get" in the ocean, surfing, swimming or fishing. He and his wife, Suzanne, have a son, Andrew, 8, and a daughter, Elise, 11.