“Environmental health”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Environmental health is the branch of public health concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment affecting human health. Environmental health is focused on the natural and built environments for the benefit of human health. The major subdisciplines of environmental health are: environmental science; environmental and occupational medicine, toxicology and epidemiology.

Other terms referring to or concerning environmental health are environmental public health, and public health protection/ environmental health protection.

Definitions

Environmental health has been defined in a 1999 document by the World Health Organization (WHO) as:

As of 2016 the WHO website on environmental health states "Environmental health addresses all the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person, and all the related factors impacting behaviours. It encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect health. It is targeted towards preventing disease and creating health-supportive environments. This definition excludes behaviour not related to environment, as well as behaviour related to the social and cultural environment, as well as genetics."^[2]

The WHO has also defined environmental health services as "those services which implement environmental health policies through monitoring and control activities. They also carry out that role by promoting the improvement of environmental parameters and by encouraging the use of environmentally friendly and healthy technologies and behaviors. They also have a leading role in developing and suggesting new policy areas."{{citation needed|date=January 2015}}

The term environmental medicine may be seen as a medical specialty, or branch of the broader field of environmental health.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}} Terminology is not fully established, and in many European countries they are used interchangeably.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}}

Disciplines

Five basic disciplines generally contribute to the field of environmental health: environmental epidemiology, toxicology, exposure science, environmental engineering, and environmental law. Each of these disciplines contributes different information to describe problems and solutions in environmental health, but there is some overlap among them.

Information from epidemiology, toxicology, and exposure science can be combined to conduct a risk assessment for specific chemicals, mixtures of chemicals or other risk factors to determine whether an exposure poses significant risk to human health (exposure would likely result in the development of pollution-related diseases). This can in turn be used to develop and implement environmental health policy that, for example, regulates chemical emissions, or imposes standards for proper sanitation.^[3]{{page needed|date=January 2015}} Actions of engineering and law can be combined to provide risk management to minimize, monitor, and otherwise manage the impact of exposure to protect human health to achieve the objectives of environmental health policy.

Concerns

Environmental health addresses all human-health-related aspects of the natural environment and the built environment. Environmental health concerns include:

According to recent estimates, about 5 to 10% of Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost are due to environmental causes in Europe. By far the most important factor is fine particulate matter pollution in urban air.^[4] Similarly, environmental exposures have been estimated to contribute to 4.9 million (8.7%) deaths and 86 million (5.7%) DALYs globally.^[5] In the United States, Superfund sites created by various companies have been found to be hazardous to human and environmental health in nearby communities. It was this perceived threat, raising the specter of miscarriages, mutations, birth defects, and cancers that most frightened the public.^[6]

Information

The Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program (TEHIP)^[7] is a comprehensive toxicology and environmental health web site, that includes open access to resources produced by US government agencies and organizations, and is maintained under the umbrella of the Specialized Information Service at the United States National Library of Medicine. TEHIP includes links to technical databases, bibliographies, tutorials, and consumer-oriented resources.

TEHIP is responsible for the Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET),^[8] an integrated system of toxicology and environmental health databases including the Hazardous Substances Data Bank, that are open access, i.e. available free of charge.

Mapping

There are many environmental health mapping tools. TOXMAP is a geographic information system (GIS) from the Division of Specialized Information Services^[9] of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) that uses maps of the United States to help users visually explore data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory and Superfund Basic Research Programs. TOXMAP is a resource funded by the US federal government. TOXMAP's chemical and environmental health information is taken from the NLM's Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET)^[10] and PubMed, and from other authoritative sources.

Environmental health profession

Environmental health professionals may be known as environmental health officers, public health inspectors, environmental health specialists, environmental health practitioners, or sanitarians. Researchers and policy-makers also play important roles in how environmental health is practiced in the field. In many European countries, physicians and veterinarians are involved in environmental health.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}} In the United Kingdom, practitioners must have a graduate degree in environmental health and be certified and registered with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health or the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland.^[11] In Canada, practitioners in environmental health are required to obtain an approved bachelor's degree in environmental health along with the national professional certificate, the Certificate in Public Health Inspection (Canada) CPHI(C).^[12] Many states in the United States also require that individuals have a bachelor's degree and professional licenses in order to practice environmental health.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}} California state law defines the scope of practice of environmental health as follows:^[13]

The environmental health profession had its modern-day roots in the sanitary and public health movement of the United Kingdom. This was epitomized by Sir Edwin Chadwick, who was instrumental in the repeal of the poor laws, and in 1884 was the founding president of the Association of Public Sanitary Inspectors, now called the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}}

See also

References

1. ^{{cite web | last = Novice| first = Robert (editor) | title = Overview of the environment and health in Europe in the 1990s| work = | publisher = World Health Organization| date = 1999-03-29| url = http://www.euro.who.int/document/e66792.pdf| format = PDF | accessdate = }}
2. ^{{cite web| title = Health topics: Environmental health| url = http://www.who.int/topics/environmental_health/en/|author=WHO|date=n.d.|accessdate=10 January 2015}}
3. ^{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uTgSBW8jE8QC&lpg=PP1&dq=environmental%20health%20from%20global%20to%20local%20by%20howard%20frumkin&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=environmental%20health%20from%20global%20to%20local%20by%20howard%20frumkin&f=false|title= Environmental Health: from Global to Local|edition=2 Editor= Howard Frumkin|publisher= John Wiley & Sons|location= San Francisco|year= 2010}}
4. ^National and regional story (Netherlands) - Environmental burden of disease in Europe: the Abode project. EEA.
5. ^Knows and unknowns on burden of disease due to chemicals: a systematic review. Press-Ustinov, A., et al. 2011. Environmental Health 10:9.
6. ^Schleicher, D. (1995). Superfund’s Abandoned Hazardous Waste Sites. In A. Wildavsky (Ed.), But Is it True?: A Citizen’s Guide to Environmental Health and Safety Issues (153-184) . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
7. ^{{cite web|url=http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro.html |title=TEHIP|publisher= United States National Library of Medicine}}
8. ^{{cite web|url=http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/|title=TOXNET|publisher= United States National Library of Medicine}}
9. ^sis.nlm.nih.gov
10. ^toxnet.nlm.nih.gov
11. ^{{cite web|url=https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/environmentalhealthofficer.aspx |title=Job Profiles: Environmental health officer| publisher=National Careers Service (UK) |accessdate=17 August 2014}}
12. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.ciphi.ca |title=Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors | accessdate=4 February 2015}}
13. ^California Health and Safety Code, section 106615(e)