The Handbook of Environmental Health

424 Pages·2013·4.981 MB·English

by  Frank R. Spellman, Melissa L. Stoudt

T H E H A N D B O O K O F
E N V I R O N M E N T A L H E A L T H
Frank R. Spellman
Melissa L. Stoudt
THE SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
Lanham (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK
2013
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Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2013 by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Spellman, Frank R.
The handbook of environmental health / Frank R. Spellman, Melissa L. Stoudt.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8108-8685-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8108-8686-5 (ebook)
1. Environmental health—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Stoudt, Melissa L. II. Title.
RA566.22.S64 2013
362.1—dc23 2012041369
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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For
Suzanne Wilson
and
Nancy Velasquez
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Contents
Preface vii
Prologue ix
1 Introduction 1
2 The Environment and Ecology 19
3 Toxicology 85
4 Epidemiology 113
5 Foodborne Disease 185
6 Vector-Borne Disease 263
7 Outdoor/Indoor Air Quality 273
8 Water Quality 295
9 Radiation 327
10 Occupational Health 347
Appendix: Units of Measurement 395
Index 403
About the Authors 411
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Preface
This book is about our world: the sun, the air, the water, the soil, the
dust, the plants and animals, the chemicals, and the metals. They support
life. They make it beautiful and fun. They allow us to live and maintain the so-
called good life. This book points out, however, that as wonderful as they are .
. . they can also make some people sick, and damage plants and animals—the
environment in which we live.
This book is a comprehensive treatment of a very broad field. The chapters
are timely and factual, well balanced, referenced, and written in plain English
for general readers, college students, environmental health practitioners,
lawyers, public administrators, utility directors (water and wastewater treat-
ment), public service managers, non-environmental managers, regulators,
and non-environmental health professionals in any field who desire to obtain
understanding of everyday environmental health issues.
Also, this book examines health issues, scientific understanding of causes,
and possible future approaches to control the major environmental problems
in industrialized and developing countries. This book offers an overview of
the methodology and paradigms of the dynamic, evolving field, ranging from
ecology (environment and aquatic and terrestrial) to epidemiology, from
environmental psychology to toxicology, and from genetics to ethics. Topics
include how the body reacts to environmental pollutants and stressors, and
they cover the many effects of environmental factors: physical, chemical, and
biological agents of environmental contamination; vectors for dissemination
(air, water, soil); solid and hazardous waste; susceptible populations; bio-
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viii Preface
markers and risk analysis; the scientific basis for policy decision; occupational
health and safety issues; and emerging global environmental problems.
Moreover, this book not only covers the environmental sciences but also
the human population. It emphasizes the environmental practices that sup-
port human life as well as the need to control factors that are harmful to
human life. With chapters providing a judicious use of figures and tables,
each sector includes an appropriate amount of material for an overview of
the topics presented.
The bottom line is that this book is not just a book; it is a handbook. While
it can be used anywhere—in the library, in the c lassroom, in the office, and/
or in the laboratory—it is designed to be used primarily in the field. It is
designed to be a “handheld” reference and guide providing guidelines about
environmental health and how to maintain it in the environmental world.
Frank R. Spellman and Melissa L. Stoudt
The real problem is the shock of severe, dangerous illness, its unexpected-
ness and surprise. Most of us, patients and doctors alike, can ride almost
all the way through life with no experience of real peril and when it does
come, it seems an outrage, a piece of unfairness. We are not used to disease
as we used to be, and we are not at all used to being incorporated into a
high technology.
—Lewis Thomas (1983), The Youngest Science
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Prologue
On Tuesday afternoon, a fifty-two-year-old man with previously di-
agnosed coronary artery disease controlled by nitroglycerin describes
episodes of recurring headache for the past three weeks. Mild nausea often
accompanies the headache; there is no vomiting. He describes a dull frontal
ache that is not relieved by aspirin. The patient states that the headaches are
sometimes severe; at other times they are a nagging annoyance. The durations
ran from half an hour to a full day.
His visit was also prompted by a mild angina attack that he suffered this
past weekend shortly after he awoke on Sunday morning. He has experienced
no further cardiac symptoms since that episode.
History of previous illness indicates that the patient was diagnosed with
angina pectoris three years ago. He has been taking 0.4 milligrams (mg) ni-
troglycerin sublingually (placed beneath the tongue) prophylactically before
vigorous exercise. He also takes one aspirin every other day. He has been
symptom-free for the past two and a half years.
Sublingual nitroglycerin relieved the pain of the Sunday morning angina
attack within several minutes.
The patient does not smoke and rarely drinks alcohol. He is a trim man
with a slightly ruddy complexion.
Information in this chapter from CDC-ATSDR, Case Studies in Environmental Medicine. Accessed
02/08/12 at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.html.
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