Human Health and the Environment

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Human Health and the Environment as the Twentieth Century Ends

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 3-9

   3. Epidemiology and Environmental Health

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 11-18

3. The Macroenvironment

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19

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   2. Potable Drinking Water

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 21-31

   3. Wastewater

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 33-39

   4. Air Pollution

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 41-53

   5. Solid and Hazardous Waste

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 55-63

   6. Ionizing and Nonionizing Radiation

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 65-74

4. The Microenvironment

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 75-75

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   2. The Residential Environment: Housing and Health

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 77-86

   3. The Work Environment: Occupational Health

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 87-97

   4. The Institutional Environment: Nosocomial Infections

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 99-109

5. Products Used and Consumed by People

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 111-111

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   2. Consumer Product Safety

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 113-124

   3. Food Safety: Biological Agents

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 125-135

   4. Food Safety: Chemical Agents

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 137-146

6. Integrated Pest Management

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 147-147

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   2. Public Health Significance of Rodents and Insects

      • Donald Vesley

      Pages 149-158

The twentieth century has seen a remarkable evolution of environmental health and environmental protection concerns and concepts in the United States. As a teacher of Environmental Health since the late 1950s, I have witnessed the many twists and turns that have marked the latter half of the century, and have had to seek continuously to explain these phenomena to my students in some rational manner. We have witnessed the following and more: great progress in controlling acute infectious diseases through successes in drinking water treatment and food processing; the emergence of greater concern with trace chemicals in air and water and their role in chronic disease causation; conflicting attitudes toward miraculous chemicals such as DDT (which promised relief from arthropod-borne scourges, then came to be seen as another chemical threat to our children and our environment); then the reemerging concern with infectious diseases precipitated by blood-borne pathogens such as HIV. All this occurred against a backdrop of scientific uncertainty and amid failures of risk assessment and risk communication, together with press sensationalism-from "mad cow disease" to "flesh eating" streptococci. No wonder the public is confused.

• Public Health
• environmental health
• environmental protection
• epidemiological
• epidemiology
• health
• ecotoxicology

• Division of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, USA

  Donald Vesley

Policies and ethics