Author Description

What can we do to improve a world environment that is increasingly posing a health risk to its inhabitants? How far are environmental factors implicated in the major health issues of our day? In this book leading medical scientists and environmentalists look at the connections between the environment, social policy, and levels of health in developed and developing countries. Originally delivered as lectures at Oxford University, the book's chapters examine such issues as the benefits of nuclear power in comparison with the use of fossil fuels, the global context of scarcity and famine, the effects on health of mass food production in developed countries, and the connection between the spread of disease and environmental conditions. Genetic aspects of susceptibility to disease are also considered, and the final chapter sums up the many difficult issues of human health in an environmental context. With balanced and informative contributions from leaders in the field, the book will be avidly read by all those concerned with public health, ecology, environmental sciences, and developing economies.