Lecture Summary – Environmental Health (EESA10)
Lecture 1: Introduction to Environmental Health
1. Defining the Environment and Health
- Your environment significantly impacts your health, alongside genetics.
- Everyone shares the environment, but health outcomes differ due to genetic variation.
- Environment includes natural (air, water, soil) and man-made elements.
2. Gene-Environment Interactions
- Environmental factors and genetic makeup are independent but interconnected.
- Interaction models:
• Genes influence exposure to environmental risks
• Genes influence susceptibility to those risks
3. Environmental Health (WHO Definition)
- Encompasses factors in the environment that influence human health, injury, and disease.
- Includes chemical (e.g., pesticides), biological, and physical (e.g., urban infrastructure)
factors.
4. Categories of Environmental Hazards
- Chemical: air, water, soil contaminants.
- Biological: bacteria, viruses, parasites.
- Physical: man-made (noise, radiation), natural (fires, volcanoes).
- Social/Behavioral: smoking, drugs (focus on chemical exposures, not behaviors).
- Genetic traits are not classified as environmental hazards directly.
5. Scope and Core Concerns of Environmental Health
- Focused on chemical, biological, and man-made physical hazards.
- Also considers how social and genetic factors interact with environmental exposure.
- Population-level health perspective.
- Broader than pollution—includes lifestyle impacts and long-term risks.
6. Core Course Themes
- Humans shape and are shaped by their environment.
- Western lifestyles lead to excessive production and waste.
- Environmental consequences persist in ecosystems.
- Technological advances often lack safety foresight.
- Global trade and travel spread environmental risks.
- Global inequality affects environmental health outcomes.
7. Environmental Crisis Overview
- Atmosphere: 30% CO2 rise since Industrial Revolution.
- Hydrosphere: water pollution widespread.
- Geosphere: land heavily altered by mining/agriculture.
- Biosphere: deforestation and species loss.
- Overpopulation and overconsumption increase environmental strain.
8. Health Effects and Inequities
- Pollution harms human organs and ecosystems.
- Environmental causes linked to 25% of preventable diseases.
- Diarrhea and respiratory illness dominate in developing regions; cancer and CVD in
developed.
- Health disparities exist between rich vs. poor, racial/ethnic groups.
- Example: Asthma rates are 3–5x higher in low-income and minority groups in NYC.
— Document prepared for study purposes only —