Regardless of where we are or what we are doing, we are surrounded by an environment. It can be home, the workplace, school, a site for recreation, shopping, eating, or a mode of transportation. Every environment offers potential risks to a person's health. We can control some of our environmental risk factors, whereas others are beyond our control. Specifically, we cannot individually control release of toxic wastes into the air, soil, or waterways or in the products that we buy. However, we can to some extent control the food we eat from potentially polluted areas and the water we drink. We can also reduce the amount of time we spend outdoor when pollution is high, and we can make informed choices about the products that we purchase.
Likewise, with the recent worldwide outbreak of H1N1, we cannot control entirely coming into contact with people who have the flu. We can, though, influence our susceptibility by careful and consistent hand washing, avoiding being in crowds, and wearing a properly secured face mask when in crowds or when around people with either known or suspected colds or the flu. The articles in this issue deal with more complex environmental health issues that protect ourselves from contagious diseases.
It is our responsibility as healthcare professionals to be able to teach those for whom we provide care and the students whom we teach how to assess the health risks posed by their environment. Being diligent about environmental health requires that we use the problem-solving process. The first step is assessment, followed by problem identification, development of a plan, and then evaluation. As you will read, many of the articles in this issue provide useful and interesting information about assessments and subsequent plans and projects that the authors have made about environmental health threats. However, note that many of the articles describe environmental health hazards that are beyond the control of the person or the family or at the least very difficult to control since the hazard is in the air, water, or soil.
In fact, I imagine that many of you will learn about environmental hazards in this issue just as I did. For example, until I read the article by Longo and colleagues, I had never heard of vog. Certainly, I knew about volcanoes and that the state of Hawaii did have active volcanoes, but I was unaware that when they erupted, they could spew out sulfur dioxide emissions sufficiently strong to penetrate homes in the areas near the volcano. Anyone who has taken chemistry can, no doubt, recall the unpleasant odor that accompanies sulfur dioxide. We would hardly want to smell it in our yards and homes.
Similarly, the articles of both Greger and Koneswaran and Cutt et al deal with animals and represent 2 very different aspects. The first article deals with the negative environmental effects of large-scale farm animal production facilities and the consequent release of contaminants from them into the air and water. In contrast, the latter article discusses the kinds of environments that facilitate dog walking and the benefits to dog owners of the exercise they engage in when they walk their pets regularly. The remaining articles discuss topics such as the built environment, lead poisoning, and environmental injuries that may be better known to readers. Each is interesting and informative and may cause us to look at the environment around us somewhat differently.
Jeanette Lancaster