Routledge Studies in Environment and Health – serie

Environmental health encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect human health, such as radiation, toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents. It is often assumed that the assessment part is just a matter of scientific research, and the control part a matter of implementing standards which unambiguously follow from that research. But it is less commonly understood that environmental health also requires addressing questions of an ethical nature.How can we determine the "acceptable" risk level for the general population or for certain groups? How should we deal with uneven distributions of risks and benefits? How do we communicate about risks with the stakeholders? This multidisciplinary collection brings together a number of leading researchers and scholars in order to generate discussion surrounding these key questions, and to bring the ethical implications of science and technology to the forefront of critical thought. Providing a broad overview of the Ethics of Environmental Health, its philosophical foundations and practical applications, this book offers a significant contribution to ongoing discussions in sustainable development and will be of interest to scholars and practitioners of Environmental Health, urban studies and healthcare.

REACH and the Environmental Regulation of Nanotechnology presents a thorough and comprehensive legal analysis on the status of nanoscale chemicals under the EU’s REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction) regulation, asking whether it effectively safeguards human health and environmental protection. This book examines the European Commission’s claim that REACH offers the best possible framework for the risk management of nanomaterials. Through a detailed and meticulous analysis of the four phases of REACH, Kuraj assesses the capacity of the Regulation to protect human health and the environment against the potential harms associated with exposure to nanomaterials, and draws attention to the ways in which the specificities of nanoscale chemicals are (not) tackled by the current REACH framework. Overall, this book is an innovative and timely contribution to the ongoing debate on how to best address the unprecedented risks posed by the growing pursuit of nanotechnological innovation by the EU and global policy agenda. REACH and the Environmental Regulation of Nanotechnology will be of great interest to advanced students and scholars of environmental law and policy, environmental governance, science and technology studies, and environment and health.

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.

Research Ethics for Environmental Health explores the ethical basis of environmental health research and related aspects of risk assessment and control. Environmental health encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect human health, such as radiation, toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents. It is often assumed that the assessment part is just a matter of scientific research, and that control is a matter of implementing standards that unambiguously follow from that research. But it is less commonly understood that environmental health also requires addressing questions of an ethical nature. Coming from multiple disciplines and nine different countries, the contributors to this book critically examine a diverse range of ethical concerns in modern environmental health research. This book will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of environmental health, as well as researchers in applied ethics, environmental ethics, medical ethics, bioethics and those concerned with chemical and radiation protection.

Set in the ‘human–environment’ interaction space, this book applies new theoretical and practical insights to understanding what makes healthy urban environments. It stems from recognition that the world is rapidly urbanising and the international concern with how to create healthy settings and liveable cities in the context of a rapidly changing planet. A key argument is that usual attempts to make healthy cities are limited by human-centrism and bifurcated, western thinking about cities, health and nature. Drawing on the innovative ‘more-than-human’ scholarship from a range of disciplines, it presents a synthesis of the main contributions, and how they can be used to rethink what healthy urban environments are, and who they are for. In particular, the book turns its attention to urban biodiversity and the many non-human species that live in, make and share cities with humans.The book will be of interest to scholars and students in human geography, health sociology, environmental humanities, public health, health promotion, planning and urban design, as well as policymakers and professionals working in these fields.

Environmental health involves the assessment and control of environmental factors that can potentially affect human health, such as radiation, toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents. It is less commonly understood that environmental health also requires addressing questions of an ethical nature. Bringing together work from experts across a range of sub-disciplines of environmental health, this collection of essays discusses the ethical implications of environmental health research and its application, presented at the 3rd International Symposium on Ethics of Environmental Health held in August 2016 in the Czech Republic. In doing so, it builds upon the insights and ideas put forward in the first volume of Ethics of Environmental Health, published by Routledge in early 2017.This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental health, applied ethics, environmental ethics, medical ethics and bioethics, as well as those concerned with public health, environmental studies, toxicology and radiation.

This book compares how governments in 192 countries perceive climate change related health risks and which measures they undertake to protect their populations. Building on case studies from the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Korea, Japan and Sri Lanka, The Politics of the Climate Change-Health Nexus demonstrates the strong influence of epistemic communities and international organisations on decision making in the field of climate change and health. Jungmann shows that due to the complexity and uncertainty of climate change related health risks, governments depend on the expertise of universities, think tanks, international organisations and researchers within the public sector to understand, strategize and implement effective health adaptation measures. Due to their general openness towards new ideas and academic freedom, the book shows that more democratic states tend to demonstrate a higher recognition of the need to protect their populations. However, the level of success largely depends on the strength of their epistemic communities and the involvement of international organisations. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change and public health. It will also be a valuable resource for policymakers from around the world to learn from best practices and thus improve the health adaptation work in their own countries.

This book compares how governments in 192 countries perceive climate change related health risks and which measures they undertake to protect their populations. Building on case studies from the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Korea, Japan and Sri Lanka, The Politics of the Climate Change-Health Nexus demonstrates the strong influence of epistemic communities and international organisations on decision making in the field of climate change and health. Jungmann shows that due to the complexity and uncertainty of climate change related health risks, governments depend on the expertise of universities, think tanks, international organisations and researchers within the public sector to understand, strategize and implement effective health adaptation measures. Due to their general openness towards new ideas and academic freedom, the book shows that more democratic states tend to demonstrate a higher recognition of the need to protect their populations. However, the level of success largely depends on the strength of their epistemic communities and the involvement of international organisations. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change and public health. It will also be a valuable resource for policymakers from around the world to learn from best practices and thus improve the health adaptation work in their own countries.

This book provides a theoretical framework and related technical skills for investigating climate change and its public health consequences and responses with a focus on urban settings, and in particular Hong Kong, a subtropical metropolis in Asia. Specifically, the book examines the impact of climate change on health in terms of mortality, hospital admissions and help-seeking, as well as key response strategies of adaptation and mitigation. Many existing books tend to consider the relationship of climate change and public health as two connected issues divided into various discrete topics. Conversely, this book explicitly applies public health concepts to study the human impact of climate change, for example, by conceptualising climate change impact and its alleviation, mitigation and adaptation in a public health framework. Overall, this volume summarises what is known about climate change and health and ignites further debates in the area, especially for urban subtropical communities from within a wider global perspective. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental health, public health, climate change, urban studies and Asian studies.

REACH and the Environmental Regulation of Nanotechnology presents a thorough and comprehensive legal analysis on the status of nanoscale chemicals under the EU’s REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction) regulation, asking whether it effectively safeguards human health and environmental protection. This book examines the European Commission’s claim that REACH offers the best possible framework for the risk management of nanomaterials. Through a detailed and meticulous analysis of the four phases of REACH, Kuraj assesses the capacity of the Regulation to protect human health and the environment against the potential harms associated with exposure to nanomaterials, and draws attention to the ways in which the specificities of nanoscale chemicals are (not) tackled by the current REACH framework. Overall, this book is an innovative and timely contribution to the ongoing debate on how to best address the unprecedented risks posed by the growing pursuit of nanotechnological innovation by the EU and global policy agenda. REACH and the Environmental Regulation of Nanotechnology will be of great interest to advanced students and scholars of environmental law and policy, environmental governance, science and technology studies, and environment and health.

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.

Research Ethics for Environmental Health explores the ethical basis of environmental health research and related aspects of risk assessment and control. Environmental health encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect human health, such as radiation, toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents. It is often assumed that the assessment part is just a matter of scientific research, and that control is a matter of implementing standards that unambiguously follow from that research. But it is less commonly understood that environmental health also requires addressing questions of an ethical nature. Coming from multiple disciplines and nine different countries, the contributors to this book critically examine a diverse range of ethical concerns in modern environmental health research. This book will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of environmental health, as well as researchers in applied ethics, environmental ethics, medical ethics, bioethics and those concerned with chemical and radiation protection.

This edited volume examines the complex entanglements of human, animal, and environmental health. It assembles leading scholars from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and medicine to explore existing One Health approaches and to envision a mode of health that is both more-than-human and also more sensitive to, and explicit about, colonial and neocolonial legacies—urging the decolonization of One Health.While acknowledging the importance of One Health, the volume at the same time critically examines its roots, highlighting the structural biases and power dynamics still at play in this global health regime. The volume is distinctive in its geographic breadth. It travels from Inuit sled dogs in the Arctic to rock hyraxes in Jerusalem, from black-faced spoonbills in Taiwan to street dogs in India, from spittle-bugs on Mallorca’s almond trees to jellyfish management at sea, and from rabies in sub-Saharan Africa to massive culling practices in South Korea. Together, the contributors call for One Health to move toward a more transparent, plural, and just perception of health that takes seriously the role of more-than-humans and of nonscientific knowledges, pointing to ways in which One Health can—and should—be decolonized.This volume will appeal to researchers and practitioners in the medical humanities, posthumanities, environmental humanities, science and technology studies, animal studies, multispecies ethnography, anthrozoology, and critical public health.The Open Access version of chapter 1, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003294085, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Funded by the Wellcome Trust.

This edited volume examines the complex entanglements of human, animal, and environmental health. It assembles leading scholars from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and medicine to explore existing One Health approaches and to envision a mode of health that is both more-than-human and also more sensitive to, and explicit about, colonial and neocolonial legacies—urging the decolonization of One Health.While acknowledging the importance of One Health, the volume at the same time critically examines its roots, highlighting the structural biases and power dynamics still at play in this global health regime. The volume is distinctive in its geographic breadth. It travels from Inuit sled dogs in the Arctic to rock hyraxes in Jerusalem, from black-faced spoonbills in Taiwan to street dogs in India, from spittle-bugs on Mallorca’s almond trees to jellyfish management at sea, and from rabies in sub-Saharan Africa to massive culling practices in South Korea. Together, the contributors call for One Health to move toward a more transparent, plural, and just perception of health that takes seriously the role of more-than-humans and of nonscientific knowledges, pointing to ways in which One Health can—and should—be decolonized.This volume will appeal to researchers and practitioners in the medical humanities, posthumanities, environmental humanities, science and technology studies, animal studies, multispecies ethnography, anthrozoology, and critical public health.The Open Access version of chapter 1, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003294085, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Funded by the Wellcome Trust.

This timely and powerful autoethnography traces the spread of and responses to Covid-19: from the uncertainty surrounding its outbreak, to its devastating and continued aftermath. Following the virus in real time, it explores the fears, risks and responses to the global pandemic, and how it has shaped our everyday lives against the backdrop of social and political upheaval, and the looming climate crisis.Social theorist and moral philosopher, Victor Jeleniewski Seidler, discusses fundamental questions of inequality and injustice regarding race, class and gender brought to the fore by the visibility of varying risk levels, vulnerabilities and protections provided by legislative measures against the virus. This interdisciplinary analysis scrutinises values, ethics, responsibilities and uncertain futures formed by the global health crisis, and evaluates media and communications strategies, government responses and political communications at domestic and international levels. Seidler shares critical insights into the cultural history of pandemics, highlighting lessons to be learned from anticipating, preparing for and enduring moments of crisis. Perceiving how the pandemic and climate emergency are interwoven, the book concludes with an urgent call to rebuild sustainable economic, political and ecological imaginations.This wide-reaching volume will appeal to a broad academic readership in environmental studies, sociology, philosophy, health studies, cultural studies, gender studies, media and communication.

This timely and powerful autoethnography traces the spread of and responses to Covid-19: from the uncertainty surrounding its outbreak, to its devastating and continued aftermath. Following the virus in real time, it explores the fears, risks and responses to the global pandemic, and how it has shaped our everyday lives against the backdrop of social and political upheaval, and the looming climate crisis.Social theorist and moral philosopher, Victor Jeleniewski Seidler, discusses fundamental questions of inequality and injustice regarding race, class and gender brought to the fore by the visibility of varying risk levels, vulnerabilities and protections provided by legislative measures against the virus. This interdisciplinary analysis scrutinises values, ethics, responsibilities and uncertain futures formed by the global health crisis, and evaluates media and communications strategies, government responses and political communications at domestic and international levels. Seidler shares critical insights into the cultural history of pandemics, highlighting lessons to be learned from anticipating, preparing for and enduring moments of crisis. Perceiving how the pandemic and climate emergency are interwoven, the book concludes with an urgent call to rebuild sustainable economic, political and ecological imaginations.This wide-reaching volume will appeal to a broad academic readership in environmental studies, sociology, philosophy, health studies, cultural studies, gender studies, media and communication.

This book examines the impact of climate change on eye disease and eye health.Filling a lacuna in the existing literature, Scott Fraser takes a deep dive into the eye diseases that are most affected by the climate crisis and explores the subsequent burden on organisations, charities and healthcare systems. Fraser begins by including short primer chapters on the basics of climate science and climate change, highlighting which environmental mechanisms directly and indirectly affect our health and why. He then looks in detail at the direct and indirect threats to eye health from climate change and examines factors including changing insect vectors, trauma from extreme weather events such as wildfires, floods and droughts, as well as the impact of crop failure, malnutrition, animal and plant migration. Highlighting the Global North vs South divide, the book goes on to consider issues around eye care, exploring the increased burden that climate-induced chronic eye diseases including cataracts, macular degeneration and nutritional eye diseases are placing on health care systems. These chapters also reflect on the ways in which eye care, ophthalmology, optometry, pharmaceutical and medical device companies all contribute to the climate footprint themselves.Unique and timely, this book will be a great resource for students and clinicians of ophthalmology, optometry and allied eye care professions, as well as climate scientists, researchers, policy makers, charities, NGOs working in related fields of environment and health.

This book examines the impact of climate change on eye disease and eye health.Filling a lacuna in the existing literature, Scott Fraser takes a deep dive into the eye diseases that are most affected by the climate crisis and explores the subsequent burden on organisations, charities and healthcare systems. Fraser begins by including short primer chapters on the basics of climate science and climate change, highlighting which environmental mechanisms directly and indirectly affect our health and why. He then looks in detail at the direct and indirect threats to eye health from climate change and examines factors including changing insect vectors, trauma from extreme weather events such as wildfires, floods and droughts, as well as the impact of crop failure, malnutrition, animal and plant migration. Highlighting the Global North vs South divide, the book goes on to consider issues around eye care, exploring the increased burden that climate-induced chronic eye diseases including cataracts, macular degeneration and nutritional eye diseases are placing on health care systems. These chapters also reflect on the ways in which eye care, ophthalmology, optometry, pharmaceutical and medical device companies all contribute to the climate footprint themselves.Unique and timely, this book will be a great resource for students and clinicians of ophthalmology, optometry and allied eye care professions, as well as climate scientists, researchers, policy makers, charities, NGOs working in related fields of environment and health.

Policy-makers are increasingly concerned about the impact of climate variability and change on the health of vulnerable populations. Variations and trends in climatic factors and extreme weather events impact many health outcomes, including malaria, heat stress and undernutrition. Climate Information for Public Health Action is based on the premise that climate knowledge and information can help protect the public from climate-sensitive health risks. With a focus on infectious disease, hydro-meteorological disasters and nutrition, the book explores why, when and how data on the historical, current and future (from days to decades) climate can be incorporated into health decision-making. Created as a collaborative effort between climate and health experts, this book targets a broad technical public health community, alongside development practitioners and policy-makers engaged in climate change adaptation. It may also guide climate experts in the development of climate services tailored to health needs. Written in an accessible, informative style, while maintaining the highest technical and scientific standards, it will also be a valuable resource for students and academics studying and working in the emerging field of environment and health.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781315115603, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license."

Policy-makers are increasingly concerned about the impact of climate variability and change on the health of vulnerable populations. Variations and trends in climatic factors and extreme weather events impact many health outcomes, including malaria, heat stress and undernutrition. Climate Information for Public Health Action is based on the premise that climate knowledge and information can help protect the public from climate-sensitive health risks. With a focus on infectious disease, hydro-meteorological disasters and nutrition, the book explores why, when and how data on the historical, current and future (from days to decades) climate can be incorporated into health decision-making. Created as a collaborative effort between climate and health experts, this book targets a broad technical public health community, alongside development practitioners and policy-makers engaged in climate change adaptation. It may also guide climate experts in the development of climate services tailored to health needs. Written in an accessible, informative style, while maintaining the highest technical and scientific standards, it will also be a valuable resource for students and academics studying and working in the emerging field of environment and health.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781315115603, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license."

Environmental health encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect human health, such as radiation, toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents. It is often assumed that the assessment part is just a matter of scientific research, and the control part a matter of implementing standards which unambiguously follow from that research. But it is less commonly understood that environmental health also requires addressing questions of an ethical nature.How can we determine the "acceptable" risk level for the general population or for certain groups? How should we deal with uneven distributions of risks and benefits? How do we communicate about risks with the stakeholders? This multidisciplinary collection brings together a number of leading researchers and scholars in order to generate discussion surrounding these key questions, and to bring the ethical implications of science and technology to the forefront of critical thought. Providing a broad overview of the Ethics of Environmental Health, its philosophical foundations and practical applications, this book offers a significant contribution to ongoing discussions in sustainable development and will be of interest to scholars and practitioners of Environmental Health, urban studies and healthcare.

This book provides a theoretical framework and related technical skills for investigating climate change and its public health consequences and responses with a focus on urban settings, and in particular Hong Kong, a subtropical metropolis in Asia. Specifically, the book examines the impact of climate change on health in terms of mortality, hospital admissions and help-seeking, as well as key response strategies of adaptation and mitigation. Many existing books tend to consider the relationship of climate change and public health as two connected issues divided into various discrete topics. Conversely, this book explicitly applies public health concepts to study the human impact of climate change, for example, by conceptualising climate change impact and its alleviation, mitigation and adaptation in a public health framework. Overall, this volume summarises what is known about climate change and health and ignites further debates in the area, especially for urban subtropical communities from within a wider global perspective. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental health, public health, climate change, urban studies and Asian studies.

Environmental health involves the assessment and control of environmental factors that can potentially affect human health, such as radiation, toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents. It is less commonly understood that environmental health also requires addressing questions of an ethical nature. Bringing together work from experts across a range of sub-disciplines of environmental health, this collection of essays discusses the ethical implications of environmental health research and its application, presented at the 3rd International Symposium on Ethics of Environmental Health held in August 2016 in the Czech Republic. In doing so, it builds upon the insights and ideas put forward in the first volume of Ethics of Environmental Health, published by Routledge in early 2017.This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental health, applied ethics, environmental ethics, medical ethics and bioethics, as well as those concerned with public health, environmental studies, toxicology and radiation.

Set in the ‘human–environment’ interaction space, this book applies new theoretical and practical insights to understanding what makes healthy urban environments. It stems from recognition that the world is rapidly urbanising and the international concern with how to create healthy settings and liveable cities in the context of a rapidly changing planet. A key argument is that usual attempts to make healthy cities are limited by human-centrism and bifurcated, western thinking about cities, health and nature. Drawing on the innovative ‘more-than-human’ scholarship from a range of disciplines, it presents a synthesis of the main contributions, and how they can be used to rethink what healthy urban environments are, and who they are for. In particular, the book turns its attention to urban biodiversity and the many non-human species that live in, make and share cities with humans.The book will be of interest to scholars and students in human geography, health sociology, environmental humanities, public health, health promotion, planning and urban design, as well as policymakers and professionals working in these fields.