The discipline and the varied practices embraced by environmental health have long been recognised as key aspects of the services supplied by public health professionals, academia and private enterprise across the globe. The World Health Organization at a meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1993 adopted the following definition of environmental health:
Environmental health comprises those aspects of human health, including quality of life, that are determined by physical, chemical, biological, social and psychosocial factors in the environment. It also refers to the theory and practice of assessing, correcting, controlling and preventing those factors in the environment that can potentially affect adversely the health of present and future generations.
This definition exemplifies the span of knowledge and expertise required to effectively understand and manage environmental health problems and has been used as a guide to the content and scope of this text. It is a two-stranded notion embracing both the aetiology of health problems and the methodologies required to manage them. Both strands are addressed in this text.
To meet both current and emerging needs of environmental health professionals in Australia and New Zealand, the ‘Risk' framework has been adopted for much of the content in this text, since this is the current methodology of preference across much of the world for addressing environmental health issues and problems. Until now, no text has existed for this field written specifically for audiences in Australia and New Zealand.
There is a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Australia and New Zealand that address environmental health issues. This text aims to be a substantial generic, yet introductory, text. It is designed for both the undergraduate student and for postgraduates who are new to the discipline, as well as for seasoned ‘Environ-mental Health Professionals' who are looking for a general review on the current status of environmental health in this region.
The editorial team are all academics, teaching aspects of environmental health at various institutions in Australia and New Zealand. We have recognised the need of undergraduates for an accessible environmental health text relevant to their surroundings. Beyond the needs of undergraduates, this text is also designed for postgraduates who wish to specialise in environmental health and for those with a more general interest who need an introduction to the relevant concepts and language. The text is also designed to meet the needs of teachers and researchers whose focus, whether main or subsidiary, is environmental health. Environmental Health in Australia and New Zealand should also appeal to those practicing in the environmental health arena, whether as generalists in one of the Government sectors or as specialists in other disciplines who have ‘crossed over' and are looking to update their knowledge on general environmental health principles and practices.
Contributors to this book have been drawn from across Australia and New Zealand, with a small number from further afield. Each chapter has been written by experts in the field or subject area and some interesting collaborations have been formed in an effort to produce the right balance in each chapter. The regional focus of this text is reflected in its title and, throughout the text, environmental health issues applicable to Australia and New Zealand have been highlighted.
The book is organised in three Parts. Part 1 introduces the ‘tools of environmental health' and demonstrates their use to the reader. Part 2 builds on this understanding of the multidisciplinary nature of the subject by describing the domains within which the management of environmental health issues is effected. Part 3 exemplifies how these tools and management mechanisms are used to address a range of environmental health issues.
The nature of this text means that it cannot attempt to be exhaustive on specific methods or issues, therefore reference is made throughout to definitive sources for that material. Rather, this text features processes and approaches to problems and thus serves to lead the reader into the field of environmental health and to give a sense of how broad the discipline is, and thus how multi-skilled the environmental health professional must be. As this text is in its first edition, there may be areas in which greater or deeper coverage is required. Please write to the editors with suggestions for future editions.
