Sustainability and Health

Description

Radical changes in the biosphere and human interaction with the environment are increasingly impacting on the health of populations across the world. Diseases are crossing the species barrier, and spreading rapidly through globalised transport systems. From new patterns of cancer to the threat of global pandemics, it is imperative that public health practitioners acknowledge the interdependence between the sustainability of the environment and the sustainability of the human species * Why are issues of global and local sustainability of increasing impotance to the public's health? * Why do issues of sustainability require new practices within the professions of public health? * How can future and current public health practitioners develop those new practices? Drawing on scientific evidence of global and local environmental changes, Sustainability and Health offers a thorough background and practical solutions to the overlapping issues in environment and health. It examines potential and existing responses to global and local environment and health issues involving individuals, community, industry and government. The authors introduce a range of emerging conceptual frameworks and theoretical perspectives, link IT and epidemiology and explain how scoping can link program design, delivery, data collection and evaluation in projects from their very beginning. Public health practitioners need to be able to manage health issues that cut across environmental, economic and social systems and to develop the capacity for leadership in facilitating change. Incorporating learning activities, readings, international case studies and an open learning approach, this is a valuable resource for students of public and environmental health, as well as medical, environmental and health science professionals.

Valerie A. Brown AO, is one of the leading international experts on the links between environment and health. She is Director of the Local Sustainability Project at the Australian National University and Emeritus Professor of Environmental Health at the University of Western Sydney. John Grootjans lectures in public, community and indigenous health at Charles Sturt University, having established a graduate program on Sustainable Development at Griffith University. Jan Ritchie is Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales and Regional Director (South Western Pacific) of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education. Mardie Townsend is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, with a research interest in environmental amenity and health. Glenda Verrinder lectures on environmental and public health in the School of Health and Environment at La Trobe University, Bendigo Campus, Australia.

'This is the only text... that brings together content needed to bridge the innovative link between "sustainability" and "health"... the book was highly rated by my class' - Dr Colin Soskolne, University of Alberta, Dept of Public Health Sciences