How democratic societies discover and deal with such health hazards is the theme of Environmental Health Risks and Public Policy. Often frightening in its direct recitation of medical evidence, always compelling as the work of a medical man deeply concerned with human health, it examines the ways in which science and public policy interact, sometimes to protect the public, sometimes to thwart prompt action.

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.

As with the first edition, this second edition describes how environmental health policies are developed, the statutes and other policies that have evolved to address public health concerns associated with specific environmental hazards, and the public health foundations of the policies. It lays out policies for what is considered the major environmental physical hazards to human health. Specifically, the authors describe hazards from air, water, food, hazardous substances, and wastes. To this list the authors have added the additional concerns from climate change, tobacco products, genetically-modified organisms, environment-related diseases, energy production, biodiversity and species endangerment, and the built environment. And as with the first edition, histories of policymaking for specific environmental hazards are portrayed. This edition differs from its antecedent in three significant themes. Global perspectives are added to chapters that describe specific environmental hazards, e.g., air pollution policies in China and India. Also there is the material on the consequences of environmental hazards on both human and ecosystem health. Additionally readers are provided with information about interventions that policymakers and individuals can consider in mitigating or preventing specific environmental hazards.

This book explains how the U.S. federal system manages environmental health issues, with a unique focus on risk management and human health outcomes. Building on a generic approach for understanding human health risk, this book shows how federalism has evolved in response to environmental health problems, political and ideological variations in Washington D.C, as well as in-state and local governments. It examines laws, rules and regulations, showing how they stretch or fail to adapt to environmental health challenges. Emphasis is placed on human health and safety risk and how decisions have been influenced by environmental health information. The authors review different forms of federalism, and analyse how it has had to adapt to ever evolving environmental health hazards, such as global climate change, nanomaterials, nuclear waste, fresh air and water, as well as examining the impact of robotics and artificial intelligence on worker environmental health. They demonstrate the process for assessing hazard information and the process for federalism risk management, and subsequently arguing that human health and safety should receive greater attention. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars working on environmental health and environmental policy, particularly from a public health, and risk management viewpoint, in addition to practitioners and policymakers involved in environmental management and public policy.

Written by environmental health experts with long teaching and professional careers in policy and public health, the third edition of Environmental Policy and Public Health comprises two volumes addressing key physical hazards in the environment that impact public health. The first volume on Principal Health Hazards and Mitigation is complemented by the second volume, Emerging Health Hazards and Mitigation. The health of the environment is inextricably linked to that of people. Thoroughly updated, Volume 1 describes how the quality of air, water, and food is threatened by the presence of toxic substances and explains why climate change is a global health priority already impacting human health and the environment. The mitigations discussed in this volume are twofold: policies that are intended for control of specific hazards and suggested hazard interventions. The role of policy in addressing each of these key environmental health areas is extensively discussed in this volume as well. Each chapter explains step by step how new environmental health issues are translated into public health policies and concludes with practice questions to facilitate interactive learning for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in public health and environmental sciences. The step-by step approach, as well as the case studies and practice questions, allow for a diverse portfolio of in-person and hybrid pedagogical strategies and tools at the fingertips of faculty who not only teach policy courses, but whose course topics, such as climate and health, have policy relevance.

The development of National Environmental Health Action Plans (NEHAPs) has become a major initiative in Europe, with 51 countries now committed to introducing plans by the new millennium. This book is the first substantive attempt to review recent experience in formulating these plans, and to examine and assess the technical and psycho-sociological tools available to support such plans. It brings together results from four of the leading countries involved in NEHAP developments (Sweden, Czech Republic, Romania and Poland) and describes the techniques that were used to identify and prioritise key environmental issues, and to identify policy responses. It also provides an up-to-date review of the methods and tools available for risk assessment, risk communication and priority setting, which are relevant not only to NEHAPs but to environmental planning more generally, and to many other areas of public policy. The discussion of these techniques is supported by numerous case studies, and is concluded by a series of chapters reflecting on the conceptual and research issues that still need to be addressed. The book will thus be of interest and value to all those concerned with developing and applying environmental health policy, to environmental epidemiologists, and to students and practitioners in the wider area of public policy.

China's deepening health crisis reveals the fragility of the party-state and undercuts China's ability to project influence internationally.

The media constantly bombard us with news of health hazards lurking in our everyday lives, but many of these hazards turn out to have been greatly overblown. According to author and epidemiologist Geoffrey C. Kabat, this hyping of low-level environmental hazards leads to needless anxiety and confusion on the part of the public concerning which exposures have important effects on health and which are likely to have minimal or no effect. Kabat approaches health scares as "social facts" and shows that a variety of factors can contribute to the inflating of a hazard. These include skewed reporting by the media, but also, surprisingly, the actions of researchers who may emphasize certain findings while ignoring others; regulatory and health agencies eager to show their responsiveness to the health concerns of the public; and politicians and advocates with a stake in a particular outcome. By means of four case studies, Kabat demonstrates how a powerful confluence of interests can lead to overstating or distorting the scientific evidence. He considers the health risks of pollutants such as DDT as a cause of breast cancer, electromagnetic fields from power lines, radon within residences, and secondhand tobacco smoke. Tracing the trajectory of each of these hazards from its initial emergence to the present, Kabat shows how publication of more rigorous studies and critical assessments ultimately help put hazards in perspective.