Health and Humanity

Health and Humanity

Author: Karen Kruse Thomas

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2016-07-01

Total Pages: 545

ISBN-13: 1421421097

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The mid-twentieth-century evolution of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Between 1935 and 1985, the nascent public health profession developed scientific evidence and practical know-how to prevent death on an unprecedented scale. Thanks to public health workers, life expectancy rose rapidly as generations grew up free from the scourges of smallpox, typhoid, and syphilis. In Health and Humanity, Karen Kruse Thomas offers a thorough account of the growth of academic public health in the United States through the prism of the oldest and largest independent school of public health in the world. Thomas follows the transformation of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health (JHSPH), now known as the Bloomberg School of Public Health, from a small, private institute devoted to doctoral training and tropical disease research into a leading global educator and innovator in fields from biostatistics to mental health to pathobiology. A provocative, wide-ranging account of how midcentury public health leveraged federal grants and anti-Communist fears to build the powerful institutional networks behind the health programs of the CDC, WHO, and USAID, the book traces how Johns Hopkins helped public health take center stage during the scientific research boom triggered by World War II. It also examines the influence of politics on JHSPH, the school’s transition to federal grant funding, the globalization of public health in response to hot and cold war influences, and the expansion of the school’s teaching program to encompass social science as well as lab science. Revealing how faculty members urged foreign policy makers to include saving lives in their strategy of “winning hearts and minds,” Thomas argues that the growth of chronic disease and the loss of Rockefeller funds moved the JHSPH toward international research funded by the federal government, creating a situation in which it was sometimes easier for the school to improve the health of populations in India and Turkey than on its own doorstep in East Baltimore. Health and Humanity is a comprehensive account of the ways that JHSPH has influenced the practice, pedagogy, and especially our very understanding of public health on both global and local scales.


Environmental Health Literacy

Environmental Health Literacy

Author: Symma Finn

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-09-12

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 3319941089

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This book explores various and distinct aspects of environmental health literacy (EHL) from the perspective of investigators working in this emerging field and their community partners in research. Chapters aim to distinguish EHL from health literacy and environmental health education in order to classify it as a unique field with its own purposes and outcomes. Contributions in this book represent the key aspects of communication, dissemination and implementation, and social scientific research related to environmental health sciences and the range of expertise and interest in EHL. Readers will learn about the conceptual framework and underlying philosophical tenets of EHL, and its relation to health literacy and communications research. Special attention is given to topics like dissemination and implementation of culturally relevant environmental risk messaging, and promotion of EHL through visual technologies. Authoritative entries by experts also focus on important approaches to advancing EHL through community-engaged research and by engaging teachers and students at an early age through developing innovative STEM curriculum. The significance of theater is highlighted by describing the use of an interactive theater experience as an approach that enables community residents to express themselves in non-verbal ways.


Air Quality Guidelines

Air Quality Guidelines

Author: World Health Organization

Publisher: World Health Organization

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 9289021926

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This book presents revised guideline values for the four most common air pollutants - particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide - based on a recent review of the accumulated scientific evidence. The rationale for selection of each guideline value is supported by a synthesis of information emerging from research on the health effects of each pollutant. As a result, these guidelines now also apply globally. They can be read in conjunction with Air quality guidelines for Europe, 2nd edition, which is still the authority on guideline values for all other air pollutants. As well as revised guideline values, this book makes a brief yet comprehensive review of the issues affecting the application of the guidelines in risk assessment and policy development. Further, it summarizes information on: . pollution sources and levels in various parts of the world, . population exposure and characteristics affecting sensitivity to pollution, . methods for quantifying the health burden of air pollution, and . the use of guidelines in developing air quality standards and other policy tools. Finally, the special case of indoor air pollution is explored. Prepared by a large team of renowned international experts who considered conditions in various parts of the globe, these guidelines are applicable throughout the world. They provide reliable guidance for policy-makers everywhere when considering the various options for air quality management.


The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice

The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice

Author: Ryan Holifield

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-14

Total Pages: 857

ISBN-13: 1317392817

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The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice presents an extensive and cutting-edge introduction to the diverse, rapidly growing body of research on pressing issues of environmental justice and injustice. With wide-ranging discussion of current debates, controversies, and questions in the history, theory, and methods of environmental justice research, contributed by over 90 leading social scientists, natural scientists, humanists, and scholars from professional disciplines from six continents, it is an essential resource both for newcomers to this research and for experienced scholars and practitioners. The chapters of this volume examine the roots of environmental justice activism, lay out and assess key theories and approaches, and consider the many different substantive issues that have been the subject of activism, empirical research, and policy development throughout the world. The Handbook features critical reviews of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodological approaches and explicitly addresses interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, and engaged research. Instead of adopting a narrow regional focus, it tackles substantive issues and presents perspectives from political and cultural systems across the world, as well as addressing activism for environmental justice at the global scale. Its chapters do not simply review the state of the art, but also propose new conceptual frameworks and directions for research, policy, and practice. Providing detailed but accessible overviews of the complex, varied dimensions of environmental justice and injustice, the Handbook is an essential guide and reference not only for researchers engaged with environmental justice, but also for undergraduate and graduate teaching and for policymakers and activists.


Social Inequality and Public Health

Social Inequality and Public Health

Author: Salvatore J. Babones

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9781847423207

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This book brings together the latest research findings from some of the most respected medical and social scientists in the world, surveying four pathways to understanding the social determinants of health.


Social and Ethical Aspects of Radiation Risk Management

Social and Ethical Aspects of Radiation Risk Management

Author: Deborah Oughton

Publisher: Newnes

Published: 2013-09-07

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 0080914292

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Social and Ethical Aspects of Radiation Risk Management provides a comprehensive treatment of the major ethical and social issues resulting from the use of ionizing radiation. It covers topics such as nuclear fuel cycles, radioactive waste treatment, nuclear bomb testing, nuclear safety management, stakeholder engagement, cleanup after nuclear accidents, ecological risks from radiation, environmental justice, health and safety for radiation workers, radiation dose standards, the ethics of clinical radiology, and the principles of radiation protection and their ethical underpinnings. With authors ranging from philosophers to radiation protection officials and practitioners, the book spans from theoretical to practical implications of this important area of radiation risk assessment and management. - Covers all the major social and ethical issues in relation to radiation protection - Information is easily accessible and non-technical - Authors include leading radiation protection officials as well as specialists who are more independent of the radiation protection system, thus presenting both authoritative and more critical views - Includes theoretical perspectives as well as practical experience


A Better Planet

A Better Planet

Author: Daniel C. Esty

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2019-10-22

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 030024889X

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A practical, bipartisan call to action from the world’s leading thinkers on the environment and sustainability Sustainability has emerged as a global priority over the past several years. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and the adoption of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals through the United Nations have highlighted the need to address critical challenges such as the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, water shortages, and air pollution. But in the United States, partisan divides, regional disputes, and deep disagreements over core principles have made it nearly impossible to chart a course toward a sustainable future. This timely new book, edited by celebrated scholar Daniel C. Esty, offers fresh thinking and forward-looking solutions from environmental thought leaders across the political spectrum. The book’s forty essays cover such subjects as ecology, environmental justice, Big Data, public health, and climate change, all with an emphasis on sustainability. The book focuses on moving toward sustainability through actionable, bipartisan approaches based on rigorous analytical research.


Gene-Environment Interactions

Gene-Environment Interactions

Author: Lucio G. Costa

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2005-12-16

Total Pages: 577

ISBN-13: 0471758035

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Understanding the play between heredity and environment, and relating it to disease causation, is the task of ecogenetics. Gene-Environment Interactions: Fundamentals of Ecogenetics presents the first comprehensive survey of this discipline, reflecting its relationship with toxicology, epidemiology, pharmacology, public health, and other medical and biological fields. Divided into four sections, the text elucidates key basic and advanced topics: * Section 1 covers fundamentals, including the history of the discipline, a discussion of the molecular laboratory tools currently available to assess genotypes, using such measurements in molecular epidemiology studies, and the statistical issues involved in their analysis. * Section 2 focuses on a number of key genetic polymorphisms relevant for ecogenetics, including enzymes of phase I and phase II metabolism, enzymes involved in DNA repair, as well as receptors and ion channels. This highlights characteristics of selected, widely studied genotypic/phenotypic differences, and allows discussion of how given genetic variations can influence responses to exogenous chemicals. * Section 3 examines gene-environment interactions through a disease-based approach, addressing how genetic polymorphisms can influence susceptibility to various diseases. Chapters cover important disease conditions such as various types of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular disease, chronic pulmonary diseases, infectious diseases, diabetes, and obesity. * The final section discusses the ethical, legal, and social issues that arise when investigating and evaluating genetic polymorphisms in human populations, as well as the impact of ecogenetics on risk assessment, regulatory policies, and medicine and public health. Packed with clear examples illustrating concepts, as well as numerous tables and figures, Gene-Environment Interactions: Fundamentals of Ecogenetics is a unique resource for a wide range of physicians, students, and other specialists.


Childhood Under Siege

Childhood Under Siege

Author: Joel Bakan

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1439121222

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Computer game designers craft techniques to titillate children with sex and violence, while social media developers infiltrate and shape children's social and emotional worlds to compel them to spend more and more monetizable time online. America's schools are being transformed into profit centers while children are subjected to increasingly regimented teaching that thwarts curiosity and creativity, numbing the joy of learning. And children's chronic health problems, from asthma to cancer, autism, and birth defects, steadily escalate as thousands of new industrial chemicals are dumped into their environments. Nelson Mandela once sagely remarked that "there can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way it treats its children." The problem today, as Joel Bakan reveals, is that business interests have made protecting children extremely difficult.