Environmental Epidemiology

Air pollution, water contamination, persistent organic pollutants, pesticides, metals, and radiofrequencies are just some examples of environmental factors that have been linked to adverse health effects such as cancer, respiratory disease and reproductive problems. Environmental epidemiology studies the interaction of disease and these environmental determinants of disease at a population level. Whilst risks associated with environmental exposures are generally small, the exposed population, and hence the population burden of disease, may be large. To detect these small risks, it is therefore essential that related methods and their application are refined. In addition, there is increasing attention on environmental health issues from the public, government, and media, thus raising the profile of envrionmental epidemiology in preventive medicine. This book describes the methods of environmental epidemiology, with emphasis on good practice. It outlines the basic principles of epidemiology and environmental health, and describes in more detail special environmental epidemiological designs that are rarely described in other textbooks. The principles of health risk assessment and forecasting, as well as the application of study data in these types of study, are explored. Several chapters cover practical issues in the conduct of studies, such as field work and data analyses and its requirements. Ethical issues and the role of environmental epidemiology in policy making are also covered. ...this book provides a solid grounding for intermediate- to advanced-level training in environmental science, epidemiology and public health. European Journal of Public Health With the use of interesting examples from the scientific literature, this very readable book covers the entire field of environmental epidemiology from the basic principles of epidemiology to an assessment of the societal and policy implications of results obtained from these studies...as a scientist interested in environmental health issues and the adverse health effects caused by air pollutants in particular, I found this book very interesting. Doody's Notes1. What is environmental epidemiology? ; 2. Review of basic environmental health and epidemiological principles ; 3. Environmental exposure assessment ; 4. Health effects assessment ; 5. Measurement error: consequences and design issues ; 6. Study design and methods ; 7. Data analysis ; 8. Special study designs and analyses in environmental epidemiology ; 9. The epidemiology of chemical incidents and natural disasters ; 10. Environmental epidemiology in developing countries ; 11. Practical issues in study implementation ; 12. Stakeholder and participant involvement ; 13. Ethics and environmental epidemiology ; 14. Health risk assessment ; 15. Analyzing and forecasting the future effects of global environmental change ; 16. The role and limits of epidemiology in policy arguments