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Strategies for improving human health in contaminated situations: a review of past, present and possible future approaches

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Abstract

Strategies for improving human health in contaminated situations have traditionally been based on restricting emissions, remedial reduction of exposure and, where appropriate and possible, medical reconnaissance of efficacy. We review these and the broader aspects of general public health approaches, including necessary understanding of epidemiology and the wider social context, before considering a specific local case study involving health issues associated with chromium-contaminated land and its remediation in an area of urban regeneration. The impact of remediation upon the common good, in its broadest environmental, health and socio-economic sense, including enhanced opportunities for members of the community to take personal responsibility for health-improving activities, should be taken into account in addition to conventional theoretical assessments and practical measurements of relief from environmental risk. Rapidly emerging toxicogenomic technologies may have a role to play in informing future risk assessment and remediation approaches in contaminated situations, although the ethical challenges of using personal genetic information could well be considerable.

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Acknowledgements

This paper has arisen out of multidisciplinary discussions held at the MULTITUDE/SEGH workshop, held in June 2007 in Liverpool, UK. Participants with a wide range of expertise were brought together with the author(s) and this interpretation owes a great deal to those resultant discussions. The participants in this particular theme of the workshop included: Paul Cleary, Elisa Giubilato, James Grellier, Gibby Koshy, Paolo Luria, Iain McLellan, Theresa Mercer, Jenny O’Reilly, Ann Power, Tom Shepherd, Jacqui Thomas. The workshop was administered via a NERC grant (NE/E009484/1) and supported by The Joint Environment & Human Health Programme, supported by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), Environment Agency (EA), Ministry of Defence (MOD), Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), Medical Research Council (MRC), The Wellcome Trust, Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Health Protection Agency (HPA).

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Farmer, J.G., Jarvis, R. Strategies for improving human health in contaminated situations: a review of past, present and possible future approaches. Environ Geochem Health 31, 227–238 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-008-9209-2

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