This Methods in Molecular Biology (TM) series book presents methods specifically adapted and developed for the study of distinct features of L. pneumophila. Includes materials lists, reproducible protocols, and notes on troubleshooting and pitfalls.

This volume offers an overview of the occurrence and distribution of personal care products in continental and marine waters, presents analytical methods and degradation technologies and discusses their impact on human health. Experts from different disciplines highlight major issues for each family of compounds related to their occurrence in the water column as well as in solid and biota samples, methodological strategies for their analysis, non-conventional degradation technologies, (eco)toxicity data and their human and environmental risk assessment. The book also includes a general introduction to personal care products, covering their properties, use, behaviour and regulatory framework, and a final chapter identifying knowledge gaps and future research trends. It will appeal to experts from various fields of research, including analytical and environmental chemistry, toxicology and environmental engineering.

This book aims to contribute to the literature and aid in developing a theoretical and practical framework in the area of health and wellness tourism. With contributions and research from different countries using a practical approach, this book is an essential source for students, researchers and managers in the health and wellness tourism industry. Recently, there has been an increased interest in health and wellness due to greater life expectancy, aging populations, increasing levels of stress among others. In this context, the concepts of health, wellness, beauty, relaxation, and tourism can be combined to satisfy the needs of people seeking better quality-of-life. This has given rise to health and wellness tourism, a new market segment that contributes to employment and economic growth in the new economy. Health and wellness tourism involves two aspects: therapeutics, which seeks to cure certain diseases; and relaxation and leisure. As an alternative to traditional tourism, health and wellness tourism provides a new means of achieving regional and local development from a demographic, social, environmental and economic point-of-view. It contributes to tourist destinations' economic growth, acting as a pillar to support other complementary activities. In short, health and wellness tourism contributes to employment growth and regional wealth, contributes to tourism seasonality, promotes quality in tourism destinations, helps create new tourist services with high value, promotes establishment of international cooperation networks, and yields a number of additional benefits. Featuring a variety of programs and initiatives from different regions, with an emphasis on thermal and thalassotherapy establishments, this volume sheds light on this emerging market segment and its implications for economic and policy development.

Despite new scientific possibilities in diagnostics and therapy, chronic diseases - including cancer - continue to increase dramatically. This is not only a threat to peoples' health, but also a financial problem. A new perspective is necessary: instead of treating symptoms, more causal research needs to be conducted, taking into account environmental causes for these diseases. Citing numerous examples, the study makes a strong case for therapy beyond classic academic medicine and encourages those affected by environmental stress to take their health into their own hands.

This book focuses on environmental engineering, and on wastewater treatment and reuse in particular, which is a vital aspect for countries and regions suffering from water shortages. It introduces a new water cycle management concept for designing water systems that mimic the hydrological cycle, where reclaimed water is produced, stored/regulated, supplied and used in a semi-natural manner so that its self-purification capacity and system efficiency can be maximized. To ensure safe water throughout the cycle, emphasis is placed on the control of ecological and pathogenic risks using a series of quality indices associated with bioassays and molecular biological analyses, as well as risk assessments focusing on protecting the environment and human health. Together with theoretical and technological discussions, a real case of a district water system for maximizing water circulation and reuse by means of a sophisticated water cycle is presented. This book introduces readers to essential new concepts and practices and illustrates the future perspectives offered by a new paradigm for design and safety control in the context of wastewater reuse systems.

The aim of health protection is to prevent and manage outbreaks of communicable and environmental diseases, and to make us better at responding to emergencies and disasters. This includes working with diseases and injuries from environmental hazard exposures and climate change. Essentials for Health Protection: Four Key Components is a guide to the reality of the field, and a discussion of how we can improve our present and future. Based on public health theories and illustrated by relevant examples, this book is founded on the experience gained from the long-established CCOUC Ethnic Minority Health Project in China. It covers the four key areas identified by the Commonwealth Secretariat in its 'Health Protection Policy Toolkit'; climate change adaptation and mitigation, communicable disease control, emergency preparedness, and environmental health. With the aim to strengthen regional, subnational, national and global health protection, it also looks at health impact assessment in these areas. Discussing the health protection spectrum from mitigation, interventions and response, this book is a current and comprehensive guide to the field. Looking forwards, it discusses the latest controversies and dynamics and how they might change the reality of health protection practices and development. Essentials for Health Protection: Four Key Components is the ideal introductory to intermediate level textbook and reference book for healthcare professionals, fieldworkers, volunteers and students who are interested in promoting health and emergency and disaster risk reduction.

Environmental public health is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the direct impact of exposure to environmental hazards on the public's health and wellbeing. Assessing and addressing the risks of chemical hazards requires a sound knowledge of toxicology, environmental epidemiology, environmental science, health risk assessment, and public health principles. Essentials of Environmental Public Health Science provides practical guidance on the technical aspects of environmental and public health investigations. Written by leaders in the field, the authors provide practical, expert advice on a range of topics from key concepts and framework for investigation to contaminated land and waste management. Case studies are used to aid learning and understand of the topics discussed. Produced by Public Health England, Essentials of Environmental Public Health Science offers a comprehensive and structured approach to understanding environmental public health issues and will be essential reading for all students and professionals in environmental public health.

The validity of certain critical reasoning steps carried out during or on the sidelines of the environmental science, public health survey, medical experiment, population risk assessment, or disease space-time mapping under conditions of in situ uncertainty and space-time heterogeneity, is often not given sufficient attention and may even be out of the investigator's line of thought. For example, the technical complexity of an environmental exposure experiment may overshadow the logical assumptions made when moving from one phase of the experiment to the next, or the study of population risk assessment may focus on analytical and computational matters, whereas methodological and cultural factors are neglected.This book helps health investigators structure their thinking so that they avoid logical mistakes and argument pitfalls, and also gain new insights about reality, improve their awareness of the environment and context within which one's thinking takes place.

In this book, major issues surrounding importance of water and energy for food security in the United States and India are described representing two extremes in yield, irrigation efficiency, and automation. The farming systems in these two countries face different risks in terms of climatic shifts and systems' resiliency to handle the shocks. One may have comparative advantage over the other, but both are susceptible. Innovations in irrigation for food and fuel production, improvements in nitrogen and water use efficiency, and rural sociological issues are discussed here. We also look into some of the unintended consequences of high productivity agriculture in terms of surface and ground water quality and impacts on ecosystem services. Finally, we present ways to move forward to meet the food demands in the next half-century in both countries. As the current world population of 7 billion is expected to reach or exceed 10 billion in the next 40 years, there will be significant additional demand for food. A rising middle class and its preference for a meat-based diet also increases the demand for animal feed. This additional food and feed production needs special considerations in water and energy management besides the development of appropriate crop hybrids to withstand future climatic shifts and other environmental factors. A resilient agricultural landscapes will also be needed to withstand climatic fluctuations, disease pressures, etc. While the upper and many middle income countries have made significant improvements in crop yield due to pressurized irrigation and automation in farming systems, the lower income countries are struggling with yield enhancements due to such limitations. The rise in population is expected to be more in Sub-Sharan Africa and Middle East (Low to middle-income countries) where the crop yields are expected to be low.

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.

First published in 1914, this volume was written in response to rising concerns regarding the role of the house-fly in the dissemination of infectious diseases, and its relationship to unhygienic conditions. Given the role played by the house-fly in these circumstances, it was decided that a thorough study of its entomological and medical significance was required. The volume was not intended as a popular treatise on the subject, this role had already been fulfilled by the author's House-flies and How they Spread Disease. Instead, it was designed for professionals in entomology and public health, together with students developing a specific interest in these areas. Numerous detailed illustrations of house-fly anatomy are included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in entomological studies and the history of public health.

This book covers the entire spectrum of health effects induced by chronic arsenic poisoning, which is prevalent in more than 30 countries due to the use of unclean underground water, a result of surface water pollution and shortage. This environmental health disaster has been considered more catastrophic than the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion in the former Soviet Union and the Bhopal chemical plant explosion in India.

All contributors to this review volume have done extensive research on arsenic poisoning and published excellent papers in internationally well-known journals. Health Hazards of Environmental Arsenic Poisoning includes reviews of the state-of-the-art literature and cutting-edge scientific evidence on arsenic-related health effects. It is also an important source of valuable information for health care workers, environmental scientists and epidemiologists, as well as public health practitioners.

Confronting climate change is now understood as a problem of 'decarbonising' the global economy: ending our dependence on carbon-based fossil fuels. This book explores whether such a transformation is underway, how it might be accelerated, and the complex politics of this process. Given the dominance of global capitalism and free-market ideologies, decarbonisation is dependent on creating carbon markets and engaging powerful actors in the world of business and finance. Climate Capitalism assesses the huge political dilemmas this poses, and the need to challenge the entrenched power of many corporations, the culture of energy use, and global inequalities in energy consumption. Climate Capitalism is essential reading for anyone wanting to better understand the challenge we face. It will also inform a range of student courses in environmental studies, development studies, international relations, and business programmes.

Many reproductive and developmental health problems are caused by exposure to chemicals that are widely dispersed in our environment. These problems include infertility, miscarriage, poor pregnancy outcomes, abnormal fetal development, early puberty, endometriosis, and diseases and cancers of reproductive organs. The compelling nature of the collective science has resulted in recognition of a new field of environmental reproductive health. Focusing on exposures to environmental contaminants, particularly during critical periods in development and their potential effects on all aspects of future reproductive life-course, this book provides the first comprehensive source of information bringing together the arguments that are spread out among various scientific disciplines in environmental health, clinical and public health fields. It provides a review of the science in key areas of the relationship between environmental contaminants and reproductive health outcomes, and recommendations on efforts toward prevention in clinical care and public policy.

Global Public Health: A New Era is a comprehensive account of the international state of public health, including an agenda for improving the practice of the discipline across the world. It addresses three major issues, presented in distinct sections: the changing global context for public health; the state of public health theory and practice in both developed and developing countries, and strategies for strengthening the practice of public health in the twenty-first century.
Part One surveys the complex old and new challenges facing public health practitioners, and then summarizes the state of health globally using new data based on measures of the Global Burden of Disease developed by the World Health Organization, and other groups, to better describe population health states and trends.
Part Two presents the first detailed review of the global state of public health. It analyzes the public health situation in all regions of the world. Six chapters cover Europe, North and Latin America, and Australia and New Zealand, including a new chapter focusing on the UK. Three chapters cover China, India, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The lessons from these chapters are surprisingly similar: the challenges are gerat; the public health workforce and infrastructure have long been neglected, and much needs to be done to reinvigorate the practice of public health.
The third section covers several cross-cutting themes, including the developing field of international public health ethics and the central and neglected role of the public in strengthening the practice of public health. The final chapter summarizes the major themes of the book, and explores the opportunities for building the capacity of the public health workforce to respond to the major global health needs. Despite the enormity of the challenges facing public health practitioners, especially in low and middle income countries, the tone adpoted in the final section of the book is relatively optimistic. The editors are convinced that a reinvigorated public health practice will contribute substantially to improving the public health situation, especially for the most disadvantaged populations, whether in poor or wealthy countries.

Amphibians are the extant descendants of the first vertebrate class to successfully colonize terrestrial environments; hence they occupy a unique position between fish and reptiles. Amphibian skin provides essentially no resistance to evaporative water loss, and consequently daily water turnover rates are an order of magnitude greater than in other terrestrial vertebrate groups. This has led to a suite of physiological, morphological and behavioural adaptations that have allowed a successful terrestrial existence in spite of this apparently spendthrift water retention strategy. Ecological and Environmental Physiology of Amphibians provides a synthesis of current research on the comparative physiology of amphibians with a particular emphasis on water balance. It adopts a strong environmental perspective and includes a wealth of information on ecology, phylogeny and development. As with other books in the Ecological and Environmental Physiology Series, the emphasis in this book is on the unique physiological characteristics of the amphibians, although the latest experimental techniques and future research directions are also considered. This accessible text is suitable for both graduate students and researchers in the fields of amphibian comparative physiology and physiological ecology, including specialist courses in amphibian ecology. It will also be of value and use to the many professional herpetologists requiring a concise overview of the topic.

Health care is political. It entails fierce battles over the allocation of resources, arguments over the imposition of regulations, and the mediation of dueling public sentiments-all conflicts that are often narrated from a national, top-down view. In All Health Politics Is Local, Merlin Chowkwanyun shifts our focus, taking us to four very different places-New York City, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and central Appalachia-to experience a national story through a regional lens. He shows how racial uprisings in the 1960s catalyzed the creation of new medical infrastructure for those long denied it, what local authorities did to curb air pollution so toxic that it made residents choke and cry, how community health activists and bureaucrats fought over who'd control facilities long run by insular elites, and what a national coal boom did to community ecology and health. In a country riven by regional differences, All Health Politics Is Local shatters the notion of a shared national health agenda. It shows that health has always been political and shaped not just by formal policy but also by grassroots community battles.

The first edition of The Struggle for Health was published in 1985 and was widely acclaimed by those seeking a broader and deeper political understanding of ill health, beyond the medical model of care. It was a revolutionary book, charting new ways of understanding and tackling the causes of ill health, and suggesting strategies to enable health for all. This second edition includes health problems that have emerged since the 1980s, notably HIV/AIDs, COVID-19, and other epidemics, and the increase in non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It examines some of the health impacts of globalization, specifically on the food and pharmaceutical value chains, and considers the consequences of climate change on the health of populations. However, this edition does not depart from the core message of the original book: Health for All can only be achieved through a more equitable distribution of wealth, resources, and power. The Struggle for Health, Second Edition, utilises the same approach as the first, with a narrative that begins with diseases, then describes historical trends and the limitation of the medical (and commercial) model of care. At each juncture, it asks the question 'WHY' - why do people, especially children, still die in large numbers throughout the world, from wholly preventable diseases? Why is it that appropriate provision for health care is not available to every individual in the world? What changes can be made to improve this situation? Most importantly, this edition presents a strengthened call to action, building upon the original work and advocating for systemic changes to ensure justice and equity in health for all.

This is the first textbook to focus on environmental threats to child health. It will interest professionals and graduate students in public health, paediatrics, environmental health, epidemiology, and toxicology.

The first three chapters provide overviews of key children's environmental health issues as well as the role of environmental epidemiology and risk assessment in child health protection. Overarching themes are the susceptibility of the rapidly developing fetus and infant to environmental toxicants, the importance of modifying factors (e.g. poverty, genetic traits, nutrition), the role of health outcome and exposure monitoring, uncertainties surrounding environmental exposure limits, and the importance of timely intervention.

Later chapters address the health effects of metals, PCBs, dioxins, pesticides, hormonally active agents, radiation, indoor and outdoor air pollution, and water contaminants. In analyzing potential environmental hazards, the book addresses both biologic and epidemiologic evidence, including the likelihood of causal relationships. Among the health outcomes he discusses are developmental, reproductive, and neurobehavioral effects, respiratory disease, cancer, and waterborne infectious diseases. These discussions cover environmental exposure sources/indicators, interventions, and standards, and conclude with a summary of calls for an improved science base to guide public health decisions and protect child health.

This book is dedicated to the multifaceted description of the crucial issue of arsenic contamination and its effect on human health. From soil to man, this book describes the several steps from arsenic speciation in rocks, water and environment in general, through the contamination of rice-based foods in infants diet, up to the devastating effects on human health. The axis soil-food-health raises more issues than ever imagined and the book is aimed at linking all the interdisciplinary aspects involved while giving a complementary interpretation of the phenomenon. Medical geology has recently emerged as a new discipline trying to explain the events with an interdisciplinary approach and to solve the related problems for human health. Far from being exhaustive, this book is aimed at briefly addressing the 'arsenic issue' and concerns for human health while presenting the different techniques employed for arsenic removal, from natural or polymeric adsorbents to biological filtration.

Insects are the most ecologically important multicellular heterotrophs in terrestrial systems. They play critical roles in ecological food webs, remain devastating agricultural and medical pests, and represent the most diverse group of eukaryotes in terms of species numbers. Their dominant role among terrestrial heterotrophs arises from a number of key physiological traits, and in particular by the developmental and evolutionary plasticity of these traits. Ecological and Environmental Physiology of Insects presents a current and comprehensive overview of how the key physiological traits of insects respond to environmental variation. It forges conceptual links from molecular biology through organismal function to population and community ecology. As with other books in the Series, the emphasis is on the unique physiological characteristics of the insects, but with applications to questions of broad relevance in physiological ecology. As an aid to new researchers on insects, it also includes introductory chapters on the basics and techniques of insect physiology ecology.

The impact of air pollution on human health is currently of international concern. A comprehensive review of the subject is given in this volume, which complements the previous title covering air quality management. Dealing with the common gaseous and particulate air pollutants, including chemical carcinogens, it reviews the epidemiological and exposure chamber study research as well as considering mechanistic studies in the case of particulate matter. Air Pollution and Health also addresses the practical issue of setting standards for human exposure to air pollution by including the philosophy of standard setting and a review of currently available standards, along with a description of the setting of USEPA revised standards for ozone and particulate matter. Current knowledge of indoor air pollution is also discussed. As with all other books in the series, this volume will be of interest to the general public as well as being an important reference source for all those involved in the field, be it as student, industrialist, government agent, or health professional.

This book presents and discusses current research in the study of soil contaminants. Particular attention is placed on the effect soil contaminants have on crop production and growth. Topics discussed include a risk assessment of arsenic in homegrown vegetables; soil properties and crop performance in the semi-arid subtropics of Australia; pesticides as a threat or boon to fertile agricultural lands; amendment-enhanced phytoextraction of soil contaminants and the ecological significances of secondary metabolites in terrestrial biosystems.

ndoor Air Pollution addresses the problems arising from pollutants that all too commonly contaminate the indoor environment, including biological sources such as bacteria, fungi and molds, common combustion products, radon and other sources of radiation, solvents used in industry and the home, asbestos and dust pollution. The aim is to provide a balanced account of the health risks associated with these major pollutants and to quantify the scale of the problem on a pollution-by-pollution basis. Each chapter covers exposure levels, sources of pollution, and routes of uptake, health effects, control measures, and regulatory guidelines.