Hundreds of millions of people live and work in forests across the world. One vital aspect of their lives, yet largely unexamined, is the challenge of protecting and enhancing the unique relationship between the health of forests and the health of people. This book, written for a broad audience, is the first comprehensive introduction to the issues surrounding the health of people living in and around forests, particularly in Asia, South America and Africa. Part one is a set of synthesis chapters, addressing policy, public health, environmental conservation and ecological perspectives on health and forests (including women and child health, medicinal plants and viral diseases such as Ebola, SARS and Nipah Encephalitis). Part two takes a multi-lens approach to lead the reader to a more concrete and holistic understanding. It features case studies from around the world that cover important issues such as the links between HIV/AIDS and the forest sector, and between diet and health. Part three looks at the specific challenges to health care delivery in forested areas, including remoteness and the integration of traditional medicine with modern health care. The generous use of boxes with specific examples adds layers of depth to the analyses. The book concludes with a synthesis designed for use by practitioners and policymakers to work with forest dwellers to improve their health and their ecosystems. This book is a vital addition to the knowledge base of all professionals, academics and students working on forests, natural resources management, health and development worldwide. Published with CIFOR and People and Plants International

Until now, an approach to land use management planning that not only addresses economic issues, but also environmental concerns and health issues of land use has been lacking. These issues are vital for public policy makers, decision-makers throughout the private sector, as well as all businesses and industries that share space with the communities they serve and draw from. This volume covers the legal and regulatory aspects of land use management, the process of land use planning, and all of the related environmental, health, and societal impacts that land use planning entails. This book provides a clear, multidisciplinary approach to a very complex set of issues. An essential resource not only for public administrators, policymakers, and planners, but for people with corresponding responsibilities in business and industry, their attorneys and other advisors, and for their colleagues with similar concerns.

Because of their inestimable importance, land use decisions require thorough study and evaluation before project implementation--but what makes this a challenge is the uncommon breadth of knowledge and familiarity with a wide range of disciplines that decision makers must process--and yet few have the necessary background and training. El-Ahraf, Qayoumi, and Dowd have thus had to attack their topic from a variety of viewpoints and disciplines, such as urban plannning, environmental science, energy use, public health, as well as from the viewpoints of people whose concerns are primarily socioeconomic and legal. They take these disparate and often conflicting viewpoints and integrate them, giving readers a systematic way to acquire a holistic appreciation of the topic. Although the book focuses primarily on land use in the United States, it borrows relevant examples from international data. It is therefore useful not only as a text for college courses in the area of public health and urban planning, but as a reference for professionals in many different fields with related concerns.

Rip Currents: Beach Safety, Physical Oceanography, and Wave Modeling is the culmination of research from over 100 coastal scientists, engineers, forecast meteorologists, lifeguard chiefs, and other practitioners from around the world who participated in the 1st International Rip Current Symposium. These experts identify advancements in research that will lead to a better understanding of the dynamics, mechanisms, and predictability of these dangerous currents, and lower the number of rip current drownings.

Edited by Stephen Leatherman and John Fletemeyer, the book covers:

• The full spectrum of rip current research and outreach initiatives on all four U.S. coasts (Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, and Great Lakes) as well as the countries of Brazil, U.K., Japan, and Australia
• Scientific techniques used to study rip currents including field investigation and numerical modeling
• Field research involving the use of water-based sensors, video technology, and remote sensing
• The development of public education programs through various outreach programs and campaigns as well as an evaluation of their overall effectiveness

Rip Currents' sixteen chapters run the gamut from technical aspects of rip currents to beach safety management strategies. Whether dealing with determining rip current occurrence, hydrodynamic processes, prediction, or mitigating rip current hazards to enhance beach safety, each chapter provides a vignette that is distinct in its own right but also linked to or integrated with other chapters in the book. This comprehensive treatment presents an integrated, international perspective on a coastal process that is only now becoming better understood by the scientific community, and which has great importance to public safety on the world's beaches.

Many countries experience lack of harmony among economic development, environmental management and human health. As a consequence, public health, the integrity of ecosystems, and the efforts to reach environmental sustainability, have been adversely affected. The complexity, frequency and magnitude of those impacts is increasingly parallel to the technological revolution, rising population, and increasing per capita consumption. The burden of the concerns about how humans inflict natural and man-made enclaves tends to rely in highly industrial societies. However, many of the world environmental alterations are been achieved by non-industrial societies. This book examines and discusses multidisciplinary aspects of the impacts that humans had on the physical environment, the biota, and human health, focusing on the scenario of developing and under developing countries. Among the areas covered are environmental degradation, pollution, occupational health, risk management, epidemiology and toxicology. This book will help scientists, resource managers, administrators, educators, policy makers and college students interpret that risk management and the advancement of research in sustainable development is of utmost importance for all parties involved in seeking solutions for the protection of natural and anthropogenic systems, and human health.

Human biomonitoring has developed from a research tool in occupational and environmental health to identify and quantify exposures to harmful substances in urine and blood. The analytical methods for detection of substances in biological media have considerably improved with smaller detection limits and more precise and specific measurements. Human biomonitoring is a valuable tool in exposure estimation of selected populations and currently used in surveillance programs all over the world. This two volume set provides an overview of current available biomarkers and human biomonitoring programs in environmental health, which is timely given the present debate on adverse health effects from environmental exposures. The books decribe both previous and ongoing studies as well as the newer biomarkers of exposure and effects. Volume one describes current human biomonitoring programs in Germany, Romania, France, Canada, India and Belgium, providing convincing evidence of a global decline in human exposures to lead and increasing concern from exposure to endocrine disruptors and the genotoxic compound. Biomarkers of specific exposures to a wide range of widely used everyday compounds such as phthalates, PFCs, bisphenol A, brominated flame retardants, PAHs, dioxins, mercury and arsenic are also discussed. Volume two decribes human biomonitoing of exposures to environmental tobacco smoke, mycotoxins, physiological stress, hormone activity, oxidative stress and ionizing radiation, as well as effect biomarkers of hemoglobin adducts, germ cells, micronuclei and individual susceptability. The books will be essential reading for toxicologists, environmental scientists and all those working in the safety and risk assessment of chemicals.

Human biomonitoring has developed from a research tool in occupational and environmental health to identify and quantify exposures to harmful substances in urine and blood. The analytical methods for detection of substances in biological media have considerably improved with smaller detection limits and more precise and specific measurements. Human biomonitoring is a valuable tool in exposure estimation of selected populations and currently used in surveillance programs all over the world. This two volume set provides an overview of current available biomarkers and human biomonitoring programs in environmental health, which is timely given the present debate on adverse health effects from environmental exposures. The books decribe both previous and ongoing studies as well as the newer biomarkers of exposure and effects. Volume one describes current human biomonitoring programs in Germany, Romania, France, Canada, India and Belgium, providing convincing evidence of a global decline in human exposures to lead and increasing concern from exposure to endocrine disruptors and the genotoxic compound. Biomarkers of specific exposures to a wide range of widely used everyday compounds such as phthalates, PFCs, bisphenol A, brominated flame retardants, PAHs, dioxins, mercury and arsenic are also discussed. Volume two decribes human biomonitoing of exposures to environmental tobacco smoke, mycotoxins, physiological stress, hormone activity, oxidative stress and ionizing radiation, as well as effect biomarkers of hemoglobin adducts, germ cells, micronuclei and individual susceptability. The books will be essential reading for toxicologists, environmental scientists and all those working in the safety and risk assessment of chemicals.

'Understanding how complex ecological and climatic change can influence human health is the new challenge before us. The book confronts these multidimensional risk assessments head-on and will catalyse the important interdisciplinary and integrated approach that is the new paradigm now required for environmental and public health research.' Dr JONATHAN PATZ Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health 'This book provides a sturdy foundation for thinking about how best to tackle a varied spectrum of population health hazards posed by different aspects and combinations of global change processes it alsogoes that extra mile by estimating the attributable population burdens of disease or mortality that are likely to result from these aspects of global change. It is heartening to see the results of this mathematical modeling being presented in policy-relevant terms.' From the Foreword by TONY McMICHAEL Health and Climate Change is the first major study of the potentially devastating health impacts of the global atmospheric changes which are under way. Using the best available data, the author presents models of the most plausible future courses of vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and schistosomiasis; skin cancer caused by nozone depletion; and cardiovascular and respiratory disorders caused by higher temperatures. Current epidemiological research methods are not well adapted to analysing complex systems influenced by human intervention, or more simple processes calculated to take place within the distant future. Health and Climate Change proposes a new paradigm of integrated eco-epidemiological models for these areas of study. It will be essential reading for those concerned with public health and epidemiology, environmental studies, climate change and development studies. Originally published in 1998"

Highly commended in the Public Health category, BMA Medical Awards 2010 There are enormous health benefits from tackling climate change. This is the first book to set out what health practitioners can do to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, to make health services sustainable, and to design healthy, sustainable communities. The book: - provides an introduction for health practitioners and students to climate change and its current and future health impacts - describes the relationship between health and the environment - gives facts and figures on greenhouse gas emissions - sets out the huge benefits to health of acting on climate change - explains what health practitioners can do - at home, at work and in their organizations, and - shows how you can support action in communities, nationally and globally. Essential reading for: - health professionals, local government, built environment professionals - students across all sectors of health, medicine and public administration - community and voluntary sector, NGOs - the business community involved in private healthcare. The Health Practitioner's Guide to Climate Change is written by an authoritative group of authors from key organisations in the field, including the Met Office, the Faculty of Public Health, Natural England, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Climate and Health Council, the NHS Sustainable Development Unit, the Health Protection Agency, the University of the West of England, Sustrans and the National Social Marketing Centre. Sponsored by The National Heart Forum and the National Social Marketing Centre. Foreword by Dr. R.K. Pachauri, Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Written by a leading campaigner for GM Watch, one of the world's leading lobbying groups, this book reveals the huge issues that are at stake. Genetically modified food has been headline news for years, but it's difficult to know how far the genetic revolution has affected our lives. Is the food on our shelves free of genetically engineered ingredients? How much power do food corporations wield? Andy Rees provides the answers. He shows that, while corporations that produce genetically modified food have met with resistance in Europe, their hold on the US market is strong. They're also expanding operations in less-regulated countries in Africa, Asia and the former Soviet bloc. The US has launched a legal suit to attempt to force the European market open to genetically modified food. What does the future hold? This brilliantly readable book tells us all we need to know.

This book, named one of Booklist's Top 10 books on sustainability in 2014, is the first to offer a comprehensive examination of the environmental health movement, which unlike many parts of the environmental movement, focuses on ways toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents in the environment effect human health and well-being. Born in 1978 when Lois Gibbs organized her neighbors to protest the health effects of a toxic waste dump in Love Canal, New York, the movement has spread across the United States and throughout the world. By placing human health at the center of its environmental argument, this movement has achieved many victories in community mobilization and legislative reform. In The Rise of the U.S. Environmental Health Movement, environmental health expert Kate Davies describes the movement's historical, ideological, and cultural roots and analyzes its strategies and successes.

The development of a field or an area of inquiry is often marked by changes in measurement techniques, shifts in analytic emphasis, and disputes over the best ways of doing research. In many areas of psychology, a number of issues have characterized methodological evolution of the discipline, including questions regarding context and reductionism, or laboratory versus field research. For some of the newer areas in psychology, such as environment or health psychology, this is not an issue of either/or. Although there has been some debate about these trade-offs, it is generally regarded by people in this field that some combination of the two approaches is essential. Depending on the question being studied this balance may change. However, the questions asked are less likely to inquire 'which way is better' and concentrate on how both may be used. This observation serves to illustrate the fact that different research endeavours have different methodological issues. Originally published in 1985, this volume explores some of the issues characterizing work on health, environment, and behavior.

Increasingly frequent environmental exposures to hazardous substances present mental health professionals with groups and at times communities of people, faced with high levels of psychological threat. As a result of an increasingly industrial and technological society, a new type of group cohort has emerged - individuals exposed to hazardous substances that present the possibility of immediate and chronic threats to their health and their families' health. Although the medical sequalae to such exposure had been established, little attention had been paid to the mental health issues or to possible integrated psychophysiological consequences. Originally published in 1986, this book focuses on reactions to exposure to toxic substances as well as some predictors of response in groups faced with increased medical risk subsequent to some of the most common and hazardous toxic exposures found at the time: radiation, toxic waste, asbestos, lead, contaminated water, and toxic chemical fire and leak.

Health and the Modern Home explores shifting and contentious debates about the impact of the domestic environment on health in the modern period. Drawing on recent scholarship, contributors expose the socio-political context in which the physical and emotional environment of "the modern home" and "family" became implicated in the maintenance of health and in the aetiology and pathogenesis of diverse psychological and physical conditions. In addition, they critically analyze the manner in which the expression and articulation of medical concerns about the domestic environment served to legitimate particular political and ideological positions.

Flood hazards and the risks they present to human health are an increasing concern across the globe, in terms of lives, well-being and livelihoods, and the public resources needed to plan for, and deal with, the health impacts. This book is the first detailed assessment and discussion of the global health implications of flooding and future flood risk. It combines an analysis of the human health impacts of flooding with analysis of individual and societal response to those risks, and sets these findings in light of potential future increases in flood hazard as a result of climate change. Written and edited by leading researchers and practitioners on flood hazards and human health, the volume brings together findings from epidemiological, environmental, social and institutional studies, with analysis rooted in an approach that emphasizes the developmental as well as environmental causes of flood risk, and the socially differentiated nature of vulnerability and coping capacity. The first part of the book sets out the scope of the issues, and provides a detailed discussion of the global health impacts of floods and the nature of human response to the health risks posed. The second part presents new research evidence on specific health aspects of floods covering mental health, infectious diseases, local level responses and the responses of health systems - drawing on case study material from Europe, Africa, Asia and North America, including the impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The conclusion synthesizes insights from the previous chapters and discusses priorities for policy, practice and research. It draws out implications for present and future adaptation to flooding, and emphasizes the need to integrate action on health with the broader agenda of long-term risk reduction. This is indispensable reading for professionals and researchers working on hazard and disaster planning, risk reduction and public health in all countries and contexts.

Published in 1986: This book tells the story of how various persons and groups have successfully dealt with a type of problem which may threaten the lives and health of every group of humans - every community. The problem is that of a polluted environment.

The volumes that comprise Chemical Sensitivity are the first major scientific books to be published on chemical sensitivity, a growing world-wide health problem. These volumes present clinical experiences in diagnosing and treating chemical sensitivity in over 20,000 patients under controlled conditions.

Human health depends on the health of the planet. Earth's natural systems, the air, the water, the biodiversity, the climate, are our life support systems. Yet climate change, biodiversity loss, scarcity of land and freshwater, pollution and other threats are degrading these systems. The emerging field of planetary health aims to understand how these changes threaten our health and how to protect ourselves and the rest of the biosphere. Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves provides a readable introduction to this new paradigm. With an interdisciplinary approach, the book addresses a wide range of health impacts felt in the Anthropocene, including food and nutrition, infectious disease, non-communicable disease, dislocation and conflict, and mental health. It also presents strategies to combat environmental changes and its ill-effects, such as controlling toxic exposures, investing in clean energy, improving urban design, and more. Chapters are authored by widely recognised experts. The result is a comprehensive and optimistic overview of a growing field that is being adopted by researchers and universities around the world. Students of public health will gain a solid grounding in the new challenges their profession must confront, while those in the environmental sciences, agriculture, the design professions, and other fields will become familiar with the human consequences of planetary changes. Understanding how our changing environment affects our health is increasingly critical to a variety of disciplines and professions. Planetary Health is the definitive guide to this vital field.

Flood hazards and the risks they present to human health are an increasing concern across the globe, in terms of lives, well-being and livelihoods, and the public resources needed to plan for, and deal with, the health impacts. This book is the first detailed assessment and discussion of the global health implications of flooding and future flood risk. It combines an analysis of the human health impacts of flooding with analysis of individual and societal response to those risks, and sets these findings in light of potential future increases in flood hazard as a result of climate change. Written and edited by leading researchers and practitioners on flood hazards and human health, the volume brings together findings from epidemiological, environmental, social and institutional studies, with analysis rooted in an approach that emphasizes the developmental as well as environmental causes of flood risk, and the socially differentiated nature of vulnerability and coping capacity. The first part of the book sets out the scope of the issues, and provides a detailed discussion of the global health impacts of floods and the nature of human response to the health risks posed. The second part presents new research evidence on specific health aspects of floods covering mental health, infectious diseases, local level responses and the responses of health systems - drawing on case study material from Europe, Africa, Asia and North America, including the impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The conclusion synthesizes insights from the previous chapters and discusses priorities for policy, practice and research. It draws out implications for present and future adaptation to flooding, and emphasizes the need to integrate action on health with the broader agenda of long-term risk reduction. This is indispensable reading for professionals and researchers working on hazard and disaster planning, risk reduction and public health in all countries and contexts.

Siting Noxious Facilities explains and illustrates processes and criteria used to site noxious manufacturing and waste management facilities. It proposes a framework that integrates economic location analysis and risk analysis, emphasizing the reduction of uncertainty. This book begins by defining noxious facilities and considers the important role of manufacturing in the world economy, before going on to describe the historical practices used in locating these facilities for much of the twentieth century. It then shifts focus to analyze the complex set of considerations in the twenty-first century that mean that any facility that produces annoying smells and sounds, is unsightly and emits hazardous substances has had the bar of acceptability markedly raised for economic, environmental, social and political acceptability. Drawing on case study examples that highlight pollution prevention, choosing locations at major plants (CLAMP), negotiations, and surrendering control of an activity, Greenberg presents a hybrid framework that advocates the amalgamation of industrial location processes with human health and environmental-oriented risk analysis. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of location economics, environmental science, risk analysis and land-use planning. It will also be of great relevance to decision-makers and their major advisers who must make choices about siting noxious facilities.

Environmental health involves the assessment and control of environmental factors that can potentially affect human health, such as radiation, toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents. It is less commonly understood that environmental health also requires addressing questions of an ethical nature. Bringing together work from experts across a range of sub-disciplines of environmental health, this collection of essays discusses the ethical implications of environmental health research and its application, presented at the 3rd International Symposium on Ethics of Environmental Health held in August 2016 in the Czech Republic. In doing so, it builds upon the insights and ideas put forward in the first volume of Ethics of Environmental Health, published by Routledge in early 2017. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental health, applied ethics, environmental ethics, medical ethics and bioethics, as well as those concerned with public health, environmental studies, toxicology and radiation.

There are thousands of substances manufactured in the United States to which the public is routinely exposed and for which toxicity data are limited or absent. Some insist that uncertainty about the severity of potential harm justifies implementing precautionary regulations, while others claim that uncertainty justifies the absence of regulations until sufficient evidence confirms a strong probability of severe harm. In this book, Levente Szentkiralyi overcomes this impasse in his defense of precautionary environmental risk regulation by shifting the focus from how to manage uncertainty to what it is we owe each other morally. He argues that actions that create uncertain threats wrongfully gamble with the welfare of those who are exposed and neglect the reciprocity that our equal moral standing demands. If we take the moral equality and rights of others seriously, we have a duty to exercise due care to strive to prevent putting them in possible harm's way. The Ethics of Precaution will be of great interest to researchers, educators, advanced students, and practitioners working in the fields of environmental political theory, ethics of risk, and environmental policy.

This volume throws light on the Sick Building Syndrome in Libraries and other public buildings, and the extent to which it is influenced by the internal environment of libraries. One of the signs of this disease is that the person suffers from a set of symptoms closely related to his/her presence in the building, without the identification of any clear causes, and his/her relief of these symptoms when he/she are out of the building. Hence, the book sheds on the extent to which the interior environment impacts upon the health of the people, and the extent to which this is reflected in their performance. The book can be used for teaching, research, and professional reference. It concludes with the recommendation that is essential to observe environmental dimensions when designing library and public buildings, taking into consideration the expected impact of SBS in library and public buildings on people. The significance of the book derives from the fact that it is the first of its kind to examine the issue of the interior environment and SBS of library and public building worldwide.

The new edition of this comprehensive study of national and international research and application into wood preservation is both well detailed and broad in coverage. The text covers the history of preservation: the anatomy of timbers and their breakdown, preservation principles, materials and methods.

This reference explores the sources, characteristics, bioeffects, and health hazards of extremely low-frequency (ELF) fields and radio frequency radiation (RFR), analyzing current research as well as the latest epidemiological studies to assess potential risks associated with exposure and to develop effective safety guidelines. Compiles reports and investigations from four decades of study on the effect of nonionizing electromagnetic fields and radiation on human health Summarizing modern engineering approaches to control exposure, Electromagnetic Fields and Radiation discusses: -EM interaction mechanisms in biological systems -Explorations into the impact of EM fields on free radicals, cells, tissues, organs, whole organisms, and the population -Regulatory standards in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia Pacific -Evaluation of incident fields from various EM sources -Measurement surveys for various sites including power lines, substations, mobile systems, cellular base stations, broadcast antennas, traffic radar devices, heating equipment, and other sources -Dosimetry techniques for the determination of internal EM fields -Conclusions reached by the Food and Drug Administration, World Health Organization, and other institutions

This book examines the need for information in support of decision-making in environmental health. It discusses indicators of environmental health, methods of data collection and the assessment of exposure to and the health impact of different environmental risk factors. It also discusses approaches to linkage analysis of grouped environmental and health data, including statistical and epidemiological issues and geographical infomation systems.
The book will be an invaluable source of information for researchers in public health, epidemiology and social science, as well as for environmental health data as part of local or national information systems.