HHS 250: Intro to Environmental Health

Polluted air and contaminated food and water are major causes of human health deterioration, but public health policy has long struggled to effectively address these concerns. This timely book?written for a wide audience of policy makers, researchers, and general readers?synthesizes what we already know about environmental hazards, identifies the gaps in our knowledge, and provides a roadmap for reducing human exposure to environmental pollution. With contributions from leading experts, Environmental Determinants of Human Health examines numerous pollutants, both inorganic and organic, in the context of their human health impacts. Individual chapters explore exposure pathways, macroeconomic impacts of human health deterioration, technological and non-technological methods for reducing exposures, monetary and non-monetary benefits from exposure reduction, and risk communication and awareness, including citizen participation approaches. This volume is a crucial text for policy makers requiring scientific justification for the development of new environmental regulations, scientists researching public health and environmental contamination, and members of the public interested in human health issues.

The second edition of Environmental Health: From Global to Local, a comprehensive introductory text, offers an overview of the methodology and paradigms of this burgeoning field, ranging from ecology to epidemiology, from toxicology to environmental psychology, and from genetics to ethics. Expert contributors discuss the major issues in contemporary environmental health: air, water, food safety, occupational health, radiation, chemical and physical hazards, vector control, and injuries. Also emphasizing a wide variety of issues of global interest, the thoroughly revised second edition contains updated information on such timely topics as toxicology, exposure assessment, climate change, population pressure, developing nations and urbanization, energy production, building and community design, solid and hazardous waste, and disaster preparedness. In addition, each chapter of Environmental Health includes learning objectives, key points, and discussion questions.

Basic consumer health information about the environment and its effects on human health, including facts about air, water, and soil contamination, hazardous chemicals, foodborne hazards and illnesses, household hazards such as radon, mold, and carbon monoxide, consumer hazards from toxic products and imported goods, and disorders linked to environmental causes, including chemical sensitivity, cancer, allergies, and asthma : along with information about the impact of environmental hazards on specific populations, a glossary of related terms, and resources for additional help and information.

This e-book documents environmental hazards from disasters such as the Gulf oil spill, from pollution resulting from resource exploitation, from contamination of the marine environment and from climate change including the role of human source greenhouse gases. Pollution from the electronic industry is a recent and serious threat to human and environmental health. The final chapter offers some means of preventing or reversing these hazards.

Historical case studies about environmental health.