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Books > Medicine > General issues > Public health & preventive medicine > Personal & public health > Environmental factors
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report is a comprehensive assessment of our understanding of global warming of 1.5 DegreesC, future climate change, potential impacts and associated risks, emission pathways, and system transitions consistent with 1.5 DegreesC global warming, and strengthening the global response to climate change in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
The concept of Green Exercise has now been widely adopted and implies a synergistic health benefit of being active in the presence of nature. This book provides a balanced overview and synthesis text on all aspects of Green Exercise and integrates evidence from many different disciplines including physiology, ecology, psychology, sociology and the environmental sciences, and across a wide range of countries. It describes the impact of Green Exercise on human health and well-being through all stages of the lifecourse and covers a wide spectrum from cellular processes such as immune function through to facilitating human behavioural change. It demonstrates the value of Green Exercise for activity and education purposes in both schools and the workplace, as well as its therapeutic properties. Green Exercise is an effective intervention for vulnerable groups and promoting healthy ageing, with activities including wilderness therapy, therapeutic horticulture and the use of forests and water. Chapters also integrate cross-cutting key themes which are relevant to all stages of the lifecourse and have significantly contributed to the Green Exercise research base, such as forest bathing and blue exercise. The book also explores the future of Green Exercise, the way in which research can be used to influence green design and planning and how health, social care and environmental agendas can be integrated to enable Green Exercise to be more widely used as a mechanism for improving health.
Our modern lifestyles often cause us to spend more time sitting behind a desk than being active outdoors. At the same time, our general health is deteriorating. The alarming rise in obesity, sedentary lifestyles and mental ill-health across the developed world has resulted in an urgent desire to understand how the environment, in particular the outdoor environment, influences health. This book addresses the growing interest in salutogenic environments - landscapes that support healthy lifestyles and promote well-being ? and the need for innovative methods to research them. Drawing on multidisciplinary approaches from environmental psychology, health sciences, urban design, landscape architecture and horticulture, it questions how future research can be better targeted to inform policy and practice in health promotion. The contributing authors are international experts in researching landscape, health and the environment, drawn together by OPENspace directors who have a unique reputation in this area. This pioneering book is a valuable resource for postgraduate researchers and practitioners in both environmental and health studies.
Combating climate change and transitioning to fossil-free energy are two central and interdependent challenges facing humanity today. Governing the nexus of these challenges is complex, and includes multiple intergovernmental and transnational institutions. This book analyses the governance interactions between such institutions, and explores their consequences for legitimacy and effectiveness. Using a novel analytical framework, the contributors examine three policy fields: renewable energy, fossil fuel subsidy reform, and carbon pricing. These fields are compared in terms of their institutional memberships, governance functions and overarching norms. Bringing together prominent researchers from political science and international relations, the book offers an essential resource for future research and provides policy recommendations for effective and legitimate governance of the climate-energy nexus. Rooted in the most recent research, it is an invaluable reference for researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders in climate change and energy politics. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
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)
Environmental health encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect human health, such as radiation, toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents. It is often assumed that the assessment part is just a matter of scientific research, and the control part a matter of implementing standards which unambiguously follow from that research. But it is less commonly understood that environmental health also requires addressing questions of an ethical nature. How can we determine the "acceptable" risk level for the general population or for certain groups? How should we deal with uneven distributions of risks and benefits? How do we communicate about risks with the stakeholders? This multidisciplinary collection brings together a number of leading researchers and scholars in order to generate discussion surrounding these key questions, and to bring the ethical implications of science and technology to the forefront of critical thought. Providing a broad overview of the Ethics of Environmental Health, its philosophical foundations and practical applications, this book offers a significant contribution to ongoing discussions in sustainable development and will be of interest to scholars and practitioners of Environmental Health, urban studies and healthcare.
The year 2016 was the hottest year on record and the third consecutive record-breaking year in planet temperatures. The following year was the hottest in a non-El Nino year. Of the seventeen hottest years ever recorded, sixteen have occurred since 2000, indicating the trend in climate change is toward an ever warmer Earth. However, climate change does not occur in a social vacuum; it reflects relations between social groups and forces us to contemplate the ways in which we think about and engage with the environment and each other. Employing the experience-near anthropological lens to consider human social life in an environmental context, this book examines the fateful global intersection of ongoing climate change and widening social inequality. Over the course of the volume, Singer argues that the social and economic precarity of poorer populations and communities-from villagers to the urban disadvantaged in both the global North and global South-is exacerbated by climate change, putting some people at considerably enhanced risk compared to their wealthier counterparts. Moreover, the book adopts and supports the argument that the key driver of global climatic and environmental change is the global economy controlled primarily by the world's upper class, which profits from a ceaseless engine of increased production for national middle classes who have been converted into constant consumers. Drawing on case studies from Alaska, Ecuador, Bangladesh, Haiti and Mali, Climate Change and Social Inequality will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change and climate science, environmental anthropology, medical ecology and the anthropology of global health.
Control of waterborne disease is a multi-disciplinary function relying on co-operation between engineers, public health professionals, toxicologists, environmental health officials and other professionals. With this in mind, Waterborne Disease: Ecology and Epidemiology provides a comprehensive overview of waterborne-related health problems for all such professionals with an interest in this significant world-wide problem. Each chapter follows a logical structure, focusing upon a specific disease group and presenting a detailed and authoritative examination of a given pathogen's microbiology, clinical aspects and diagnosis. Chapters also review the distribution of each pathogen in the aquatic environment and discuss outbreaks and sporadic disease from microbiological, epidemiological and water supply perspectives. With increasing awareness of environmental problems throughout the world, this unique volume provides timely and invaluable reading for medical practitioners, environmental health officers, public health professionals, water quality engineers, scientists and environmental regulators.
The world needs to turn away from fossil fuels and use clean, renewable sources of energy as soon as we can. Failure to do so will cause catastrophic climate damage sooner than you might think, leading to loss of biodiversity and economic and political instability. But all is not lost! We still have time to save the planet without resorting to 'miracle' technologies. We need to wave goodbye to outdated technologies, such as natural gas and carbon capture, and repurpose the technologies that we already have at our disposal. We can use existing technologies to harness, store, and transmit energy from wind, water, and solar sources to ensure reliable electricity, heat supplies, and energy security. Find out what you can do to improve the health, climate, and economic state of our planet. Together, we can solve the climate crisis, eliminate air pollution and safely secure energy supplies for everyone.
"Ecosystem Health" presents information to help the environmental sciences community further understand the relationships between ecosystem health and human health. By exploring preventative, diagnostic and prognostic aspects of ecosystem management and using case-study examples, the book takes the reader from theory to practice in this emerging integrative science.
Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Control Edited by Norman Noah
King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK, and
Mary O'Mahony Public Health Laboratory Service, London, UK With the
growing interest in communicable diseases and their control
worldwide, largely due to new and re-emerging infections, there is
a need for up-to-date information in this continually changing
field. Timely and wide ranging, Communicable Disease: Epidemiology
and Control addresses many of the contemporary issues and provides:
In fact, with the control and containment of most infectious conditions and diseases of the past millennium having been achieved in most developed countries, and with the resultant increase in life expectancies, much more attention seems to have shifted to degenerative health problems. Many of the degenerative health conditions have been linked to thousands of chemicals regularly encountered in human living and occupational/work environments. It is important, therefore, that human health risk assessments are undertaken on a consistent basis - in order to determine the potential impacts of the target chemicals on public health.
This open access book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related health impacts that range from heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and chronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being. The influence of humans on climate change has been established through extensive published evidence and reports. However, the connections between climate change, the health of the planet and the impact on human health have not received the same level of attention. Therefore, the global focus on the public health impacts of climate change is a relatively recent area of interest. This focus is timely since scientists have concluded that changes in climate have led to new weather extremes such as floods, storms, heat waves, droughts and fires, in turn leading to more than 600,000 deaths and the displacement of nearly 4 billion people in the last 20 years. Previous work on the health impacts of climate change was limited mostly to epidemiologic approaches and outcomes and focused less on multidisciplinary, multi-faceted collaborations between physical scientists, public health researchers and policy makers. Further, there was little attention paid to faith-based and ethical approaches to the problem. The solutions and actions we explore in this book engage diverse sectors of civil society, faith leadership, and political leadership, all oriented by ethics, advocacy, and policy with a special focus on poor and vulnerable populations. The book highlights areas we think will resonate broadly with the public, faith leaders, researchers and students across disciplines including the humanities, and policy makers.
Accurate assessment of environmental hazards and related risks is a primary prerequisite for effective environmental health protection, at both the individual and collective level. National and regional policies on environmental health need to be guided by knowledge about the risks to the populations involved; as the Environmental Action Plan for Europe notes, 'priority setting requires the comparative assessment of risks to health of different environmental factors against the cost of controlling them.' In recent years this has assumed particular importance, for with the encouragement of the World Health Organisation (WHO), all countries in Europe are committed to producing National Environmental Health Action Plans (NEHAPs), which will define priorities and targets for environmental health and the actions needed to achieve them. Reliable information on risks is clearly fundamantal to this process. Individual risk assessment is no less important in this context. Much of the responsibility and capacity to improve public health lies ultimately in the choices (e.g. about diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, sexual activities, sporting activities, travel mode, place of residence and occupation) which we make as individuals. If we are to improve and protect our own health, therefore, and in so doing play our personal role in achieving the targets set by these Plans, we need to be guided by a clear understanding of the risks involved.
In 1993 three institutes belonging respectively to the Heidelberg Academy for Humanities and Sciences, to the Russian Academy of Sciences, and to the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, launched a cooperative research project. The main aim of the project is to develop mathematical methodologies needed for better information support in health policy decision-making in the area of primary health care provision for the Russian populations affected by radiation due to the Chernobyl accident. At present, the major data basis of the project is the Russian National medical and Dosimetric (Chernobyl) Registry administered at the Medical Radiological Research Centre, Obninsk. The book describes the general mathematical approaches to the project and the given conditions of the registry.
This publication provides guidance on preparing data to be input into an international computerised database for clinical case histories of persons accidentally exposed to whole body irradiation. The publication has resulted from a close collaboration between the Institute of Biophysics including its Hospital Number 6 in Moscow, Russia, and the Institute of Occupational and Social Medicine at the University of Ulm. In both institutions, much experience has been accumulated during the last 20 years in dealing with basic and clinical research in the field of radiation accident management. In both institutions many case histories of radiation accident victims have been recorded. On this basis the scientists and clinicians from both institutions developed, over the last two years, a pre computer proforma to feed the International Computer Database for Radiation Exposure Case Histories, with standardised data from clinical case histories of radiation accident victims. This activity should be seen as part of WHO efforts to establish a network of institutions around the world, competent in Radiation Emergency Medical Preparedness and Assistance. This network has become known as REMPAN and it is prepared to provide medical advice and assistance when a radiation accident occurs in any country. The Institute of Occupational and Social Medicine, at the University of Ulm, is part of this global network.
Essentials of Environmental Health is a clear and comprehensive study of the major topics of environmental health, including a background of the field and "tools of the trade" (environmental epidemiology, environmental toxicology, and environmental policy and regulation); Environmental diseases (microbial agents, ionizing and non-ionizing radiation); and Applications and domains of environmental health (water and air quality, food safety, waste disposal, and occupational health). Using a straightforward, non-technical approach, the author has included many examples and illustrations of environmental health issues. Perfect for the beginning student as well as the experienced health professional, each chapter concludes with study questions and exercises to engage the reader in further study. The Third Edition maintains the structure of the previous edition with thoroughly updated examples, data, charts, tables and figures throughout. The most recent findings on the Ebola and Zika viruses have been added to the chapter on Zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. Additional study questions, exercises and ancillary materials have also been added.
This book describes, in fascinating detail, a variety of experiments sponsored by the U.S. government in which people were exposed to radiation without their knowledge. After reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents from the Atomic Energy Commission and other agencies, the Advisory Committee appointed by President Clinton in January 1994 found that nearly 4,000 human radiation experiments--most involving very low doses of radioactive tracers--were sponsored by the federal government between 1944-1974. This book documents these findings to provide a fascinating if not disturbing reminder of both the shocking standards for human experimentation and the shrouded practice of government secrecy in recent history. Carried out at the height of the Cold War, experiments included feeding radioactive cereal to teenagers at a school for the mentally retarded, irradiating the testicles of prison inmates, injecting plutonium into hospital patients, and intentional releases of radiation into the environment. The book places these experiments within their historical context, and a review of the relevant government policies and ethics standards at the time is included. The analysis is then applied to contemporary research on human subjects. The book concludes with a discussion of the Committee's key findings and a set of recommendations for changes in in institutional review boards, the interpretation of ethics rules and policies, the conduct of research involving military personnel, the oversight and accountability for ethical violations, compensation for research injuries, and balancing national securities interests with the rights of the public. This compelling volume will prove to be a landmark in the development of standards for human experimentation. Ethicists, public health professionals and those interested in the history of medicine and Cold War history will be intrigued by the findings in this volume.
Humans are exposed to harmful persistent organic pollutants (POPs) every day. Covering the adverse health effects of various organic chemicals on different organ systems, Effects of Persistent and Bioactive Organic Pollutants on Human Health explores routes of exposure and steps to protect the health of the public, including protection against intake of these chemicals, mechanisms for removal from the body, and regulatory and policy actions to reduce exposure. Highlighting both POPs and emerging POPs, the book provides environmental toxicology researchers with a complete overview of environmental causes of human disease.
In a present where there are countless opportunities for the spread of exotic diseases, the expansion and creation of far more illness in our global population through globalization and rapid transportation, and the contamination of water, air and land, we find ourselves accountable. In this day and age we are confronted by global warming, Ebola, the Zika virus, lead in our water supply, enormous problems of infrastructure including aging sewer lines, water lines, electrical grids, roads and bridges, and the list goes on and on. Best Practices for Environmental Health: Environmental Pollution, Protection, Quality and Sustainability is a one source major response to all of the environmental issues that affect global health and the worldwide protection and preservation of the natural environment. It compiles broad-based and comprehensive coverage of environmental topics, broken down by specialized fields. Topics range from children's environmental health to food protection and technology, water and waste systems, infection control, bioterrorism and pandemic health emergencies, and HAZMAT. Plus, it includes an overview of the current state of the profession and sections on programmatic techniques. This book helps solve the problems of disease and injury by presenting expert, evidence-based best practices. This first of the kind handbook is essential reading for all environmental and public health undergraduate students, as well as a fantastic overview for professionals in all environmental health, pollution and protection areas.
What can you do to improve your health and at the same time improve the health of our home planet? Do you want to be a healthier and more sustainable consumer? In this straightforward, easy-to-understand and entertaining book, dietitian and environmentalist Dr. Dana Ellis Hunnes outlines the actions we can all take. Many people feel overwhelmed by the scope of climate change and believe that only large, sweeping changes will make any difference. Yet the choices we make every day can have effects on climate change, the oceans, the land, and other species. This book outlines the problems we are facing, and then presents ideas or 'recipes' to empower us, to help us all make a difference. Recipe For Survival provides the guidance that you can use right now to improve your health, your family's health, and the health of the environment simultaneously.
This book explores environmental physical agents and their potential effect on public and occupational health. It considers the theory, current research, and applications of physical agents including noise, ionizing radiation protection and non ionizing radiation protection, and explores the monitoring, measurement, modeling and mitigation of each of these. Features: Covers all three physical agents in one comprehensive book Presents the latest results from research, as well as theory Contributed to by a panel of international experts
The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) established by the General Assembly in 1955 assesses the levels and effects of exposure to ionizing radiation on human health and the environment. This is the third of four volumes of scientific annexes provide the supporting scientific deliberations for the UNSCEAR 2020/2021 report to the General Assembly. Annex C "Biological mechanisms relevant for the inference of cancer risks from low dose and low-dose rate radiation" synthesizes the current knowledge on biological mechanisms of radiation actions at low doses and low-dose-rates, and assesses the implications for understanding the processes of cancer development after exposure to ionizing radiation, and for dose-response relationships of radiation-induced cancers.
The concept of Green Exercise has now been widely adopted and implies a synergistic health benefit of being active in the presence of nature. This book provides a balanced overview and synthesis text on all aspects of Green Exercise and integrates evidence from many different disciplines including physiology, ecology, psychology, sociology and the environmental sciences, and across a wide range of countries. It describes the impact of Green Exercise on human health and well-being through all stages of the lifecourse and covers a wide spectrum from cellular processes such as immune function through to facilitating human behavioural change. It demonstrates the value of Green Exercise for activity and education purposes in both schools and the workplace, as well as its therapeutic properties. Green Exercise is an effective intervention for vulnerable groups and promoting healthy ageing, with activities including wilderness therapy, therapeutic horticulture and the use of forests and water. Chapters also integrate cross-cutting key themes which are relevant to all stages of the lifecourse and have significantly contributed to the Green Exercise research base, such as forest bathing and blue exercise. The book also explores the future of Green Exercise, the way in which research can be used to influence green design and planning and how health, social care and environmental agendas can be integrated to enable Green Exercise to be more widely used as a mechanism for improving health.
Statutory Nuisance and Residential Property: Environmental Health Problems in Housing examines the statutory nuisance provisions in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 pertaining to the condition of premises and related problems in housing and compares these with the provisions of the Housing Act 2004. The book discusses the separate development of statutory nuisance and housing legislation in an historic context, which provides a useful basis for the understanding and interpretation of legislation and the different remedies available today. The work includes a chapter on actions by "persons aggrieved" using section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and also considers remedies provided in the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. This book: * investigates housing problems in the context of the relevant law; and * demonstrates how to use the legal framework appropriately and be able to decide on the most appropriate provision for dealing with environmental health problems associated with residential property. This is an essential and practical book for environmental health and housing professionals, as well as for advisers and lawyers in the private and public housing sectors. |
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