Share & Voice: What is 'Environmental Health'?

When I told people from the beginning of the semester I was taking an environmental health class, more than half of them responded: "What is environmental health?"  This lead me to two questions: 1) Are the people I regularly associate with that out of touch with their health and their communities health? And also: 2) How do you explain to someone what environmental health is, if they have never considered it before?  After completing this class, I believe I can give a much more informed answer.

Environmental health is defined by the World Health Organization as: 'Those aspects of the human health and disease that are determined by factors in the environment.  It also refers to the theory and practice of assessing and controlling factors in the environment that can potentially affect health'.

This is important to all of us because, whether we know it or not, we are affected by our environments as much as we are affecting them.  We are affected through our performance, happiness, health, and overall well-being as much as we are affecting pollution in lakes, rivers, oceans, landfills, and everywhere in-between.  As much as things can be an eye-sore to look at, the bigger problems often lie underneath.  When water is polluted by a factory, those problems will often show up in our bodies as deformities or increased risk for disease.  When we don't take care of our environment, it will no longer be able to take care or provide for us.  That is why it is important to understand why environmental health is important.  And knowing that I can explain that in those terms, I know anyone I describe this to wont forget it anytime soon.