Environmental epidemiology or “the study of the distribution and determinants of health
and diseases, morbidity, inquires, disability, and mortality in populations” (Friis, 2019) is
essential in performing public health research studies for multiple reasons. Studying the
environment is not a perfect science and therefore the act of collecting data and
evaluating statistics from that data, help us to determine valuable conclusions about the
health of a community and those living in it. The question is; how big should a sample
size be to obtain valuable data to make accurate conclusions? This information, if
evaluated effectively can help communities make better decisions about their health and
lifestyle habits. Through environmental epidemiology studies, we have defined a clear
disruptive relationship between first-hand and second-hand smoke and general health
and wellbeing of people. According to the New York State Department of Health, after
expanding the “Clean Indoor Air Act” studies have shown to reduce hospital admissions
for heart attack by 3,800 and therefore saved roughly $56 million in related health care
costs (NYSDOH, 2019). While smoking indoors has been banned for many years now,
the department of health has expanded its restrictions of where people may continue to
smoke if they wish to. Restrictions were increased to no smoking within 100 feet of any
public building and absolutely no smoking on property of schools or hospitals and many
other congregational areas. Results appear to be promising in upcoming years and
therefore using environmental epidemiology appears to be improving the general
publics health.
Reference
A Guide to the New York State Clean Indoor Air Act. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.health.ny.gov/publications/3402/
Friis. R. H. (2019). Essentials of Environmental Health, 3rd Edition. [Chegg]. Retrieved
from
https://ereader.chegg.com/#/books/undefined/