Environmental Epidemiology and Toxic Chemical Exposure

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Epidemiologia ambiental e exposição a substâncias tóxicas

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La investigación como instrumento innovador de la sanidad ambiental

Research increasingly demonstrates that the environment is a contributing factor to the emergence of a number of diseases. Environmental risk factors are inherent in the processes of production and arise in different stages including in the extraction of raw materials, in the production of materials, in consumption and as well as in the environmental waste generated in production. All these factors have a serious impact on public health. This article is three-fold, thus, addressing research in the field of environmental health emphasizing prevention and mitigation of exposure to current risk situations in the environment, highlighting the methodological challenges that researchers face in the sphere of environmental health due to an increasing number of variables related to exposure and risk. Finally, the need for an interdisciplinary team utilizing an inter-sectoral approach and the participation of professionals in charge of action research are explored in this article. The contributions of research on Epidemiology, Toxicology, and Risk Assessment are also assessed and discussed.La difusión de resultados de investigaciones muestran que el medio ambiente es un factor que contribuye a la aparición de enfermedades de diversos orígenes y que las situaciones de riesgo son inherentes a los procesos de producción y surgen en distintas etapas: extracción de las materias primas, la producción de los productos, el consumo y los residuos ambientales generados en todo el proceso y causando efectos graves a la salud. En este documento se discuten cuestiones sobre las investigaciones en el campo de la salud ambiental, enfatizando las dificultades metodológicas que encuentran los investigadores en el ámbito de la salud ambiental y la necesidad de un equipo interdisciplinario con un enfoque intersectorial y la participación de los sujetos de la pesquisa. Finalmente, se presentan las contribuciones de las investigaciones en epidemiología, toxicología y evaluación de riesgos

Research as an innovative tool in the field of environmental health

La difusión de resultados de investigaciones muestran que el medio ambiente es un factor que contribuye a la aparición de enfermedades de diversos orígenes y que las situaciones de riesgo son inherentes a los procesos de producción y surgen en distintas etapas: extracción de las materias primas, la producción de los productos, el consumo y los residuos ambientales generados en todo el proceso y causando efectos graves a la salud. En este documento se discuten cuestiones sobre las investigaciones en el campo de la salud ambiental, enfatizando las dificultades metodológicas que encuentran los investigadores en el ámbito de la salud ambiental y la necesidad de un equipo interdisciplinario con un enfoque intersectorial y la participación de los sujetos de la pesquisa. Finalmente, se presentan las contribuciones de las investigaciones en epidemiología, toxicología y evaluación de riesgos.Research increasingly demonstrates that the environment is a contributing factor to the emergence of a number of diseases. Environmental risk factors are inherent in the processes of production and arise in different stages including in the extraction of raw materials, in the production of materials, in consumption and as well as in the environmental waste generated in production. All these factors have a serious impact on public health. This article is three-fold, thus, addressing research in the field of environmental health emphasizing prevention and mitigation of exposure to current risk situations in the environment, highlighting the methodological challenges that researchers face in the sphere of environmental health due to an increasing number of variables related to exposure and risk. Finally, the need for an interdisciplinary team utilizing an inter-sectoral approach and the participation of professionals in charge of action research are explored in this article. The contributions of research on Epidemiology, Toxicology, and Risk Assessment are also assessed and discussed

Health inequalities by gradients of access to water and sanitation between countries in the Americas, 1990 and 2010

OBJECTIVE: To explore distributional inequality of key health outcomes as determined by access coverage to water and sanitation (WS) between countries in the Region of the Americas. METHODS: An ecological study was designed to explore the magnitude and change-over-time of standard gap and gradient metrics of environmental inequalities in health at the country level in 1990 and 2010 among the 35 countries of the Americas. Access to drinking water and access to improved sanitation facilities were selected as equity stratifiers. Five dependent variables were: total and healthy life expectancies at birth, and infant, under-5, and maternal mortality. RESULTS: Access to WS correlated with survival and mortality, and strong gradients were seen in both 1990 and 2010. Higher WS access corresponded to higher life expectancy and healthy life expectancy and lower infant, under-5, and maternal mortality risks. Burden of life lost was unequally distributed, steadily concentrated among the most environmentally disadvantaged, who carried up to twice the burden than they would if WS were fairly distributed. Population averages in life expectancy and specific mortality improved, but whereas absolute inequalities decreased, relative inequalities remained mostly invariant. CONCLUSIONS: Even with the Region on track to meet MDG 7 on water and sanitation, large environmental gradients and health inequities among countries remain hidden by Regional averages. As the post-2015 development agenda unfolds, policies and actions focused on health equity-mainly on the most socially and environmentally deprived-will be needed in order to secure the right for universal access to water and sanitation