Health and the Global Environment

The health-environment connection is a two edge sword that cuts in both directions. One one edge, a cure-after-the-disease policy, which dominates the health sector, spills over into the environment sector undercutting effective environmental action - from dealing with water pollution to averting global warming. On the other edge, a foggy view of how the environment affects human health undercuts a preventive approach to health through improvement of the state of the global enviroment. This book shows how forces, such as government legislation in both the health and environmental sectors, high-tech medical practice, drug promotion, and one-at-a-time environmental regulation, operate in a manner which is detrimental to human well-being and the fate of the environment. Critical of many current policies and practices, Ross Hume Hall offers new and theoretical insights into the health-environment connection and a more organic approach to both health and environmental issues, as well as a range of practical alternatives. Health and the Global Environment is designed to appeal to both professionals and the general reader interested in health and environment.
The book is a study that merges debate over care of the public's health with that over care of the planet.