*Definitions

"If you want to learn about the health of a population, look at the air they breath, the water they drink, and the places where they live."

• Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, in the Fifth Century BC.

Definitions - Environmental Health - (home)

How do you define Environmental Health?

Health is a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of infirmity or disease. (World Health Organization)

An Ensemble of Definitions of Environmental Health - November 20, 1998 - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Environmental Health Policy Committee Risk Communication and Education Subcommittee

Inclusive Definitions

Environmental Health -"Conditions that ensure that all living things have the best opportunity to reach and maintain their full genetic potential." Steven G. Gilbert, 1999

Human Health Oriented Definitions
Environmental Health is defined as those factors in the natural, built, and social environment which influence human development, health and well being. (Australian Institute of Environmental Health)

Environmental health comprises those aspects of human health, including quality of life, that are determined by physical, chemical, biological, social, and psychosocial factors in the environment. It also refers to the theory and practice of assessing, correcting, controlling, and preventing those factors in the environment that can potentially affect adversely the health of present and future generations. (World Health Organization (WHO) - draft definition developed at a WHO consultation in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1993)

Environmental health and protection refers to protection against environmental factors that may adversely impact human health or the ecological balances essential to long-term human health and environmental quality, whether in the natural or man-made environment. (National Environmental Health Association (NEHA))

The definition of "environmental health" has broadened to include the environment we create for ourselves (by smoking or not smoking, and by our diet, for example). It also includes the medicines and other therapies we are prescribed, our occupations and places of work, and our lifestyles: Are we couch potatoes or joggers? Sexually reckless or responsible? Listening to loud music or keeping the volume down? (see - NIEHS)

Environmental health comprises those aspects of human health, including quality of life, that are determined by physical, chemical, biological, social and psychosocial factors in the environment. It also refers to the theory and practice of assessing, correcting, controlling and preventing those factors in the environment that can potentially affect adversely the health of present and future generations. (Health, Environment & Work)

External Links

• National Environmental Health Association - The mission of the National Environmental Health Association is "to advance the environmental health and protection professional for the purpose of providing a healthful environment for all."
  
  
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) - "Your Environment is Your Health"
  
  
• EnviroHealthAction Network - a place where the health community can learn and take action - Powered by Physicians for Social Responsibility
  
  
• America's Children and the Environment (ACE) – America's Children and the Environment brings together, in one place, quantitative information from a variety of sources to show trends in levels of environmental contaminants in air, water, food, and soil; concentrations of contaminants measured in the bodies of mothers and children; and childhood diseases that may be influenced by environmental factors.
  
  
• The Collaborative on Health and the Environment is a nonpartisan partnership working to further knowledge, action and cooperation regarding environmental contributors to disease and other health problems.