Glossary

The term bioaccumulation is used to describe the increase in the concentration of a substance (such as a pesticide or a heavy metal) in an organism over time. As a result, the concentration of the substance in the organism is greater than its concentration in the organism's environment. Substances that bioaccumulate tend to be fat soluble and either not broken down by the organism of broken down at a slow rate. Bioaccumulation may also lead to biomagnification, that is, the progressive buildup of substances along the food chain, with the highest concentration found in carnivores.

An effective tool to assess human exposure to environmental pollutants. Biomonitoring is the direct measurement of a substance, or its metabolite, in biological specimens such as blood or urine, using biomarkers. Measurement by biomonitoring allows for the most health-relevant assessment of exposure, since it indicates the amount of the chemical that actually gets into the body from environmental sources (such as air, soil, water, dust or food), rather than the amount that may have come from these sources.
For more information: http://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring

Determining a causal relationship in epidemiological research is problematic because in many cases diseases have more than one risk factor, one risk factor can cause different diseases, and often the disease is caused by a combination of factors. A statistical association between risk factor and the incidence of the disease is typically required before one can attribute a causal relationship. However, a statistical association is not sufficient. Attributing a causal relationship depends on a qualitative determination of a set of criteria including among others, the strength of the detected association, the ability to identify a dose-response relation, the identification of an association consistently in many studies, the biological plausibility of the detected statistical association. First described in 1865 by Bradford Hill, these criteria are called 'Hill's Criteria of Causation' to this day.

The environmental burden of disease quantifies the amount of disease caused by environmental risks. Disease burden can be expressed in deaths, incidence or in Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY). The DALY combines the burden due to death and disability in a single index.

For more information: http://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/en/index.html

Environmental epidemiology deals with environmental conditions and hazards that may pose a risk to human health. Environmental exposures include air pollution, hazardous waste, metals, pesticides, and radiation, and health effects include cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological effects, and reproductive effects.

The contact of a chemical or other agent with the skin or the openings into the body such as the mouth, the nostrils, and punctures and lesions in the skin. Exposure may be either short term (acute) or long term (chronic).

Environmental health comprises those aspects of 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. Important sources of environmental health risks include industrial waste, air emissions and water discharges, human waste, consumer products, living conditions, transport, and ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Health effects with known or suspected environmental etiologies include cancer, cardio-pulmonary diseases, asthma and other respiratory diseases, allergies, neuro-toxicity and neurological impairment, gastro-intestinal diseases, developmental and congenital abnormalities, and acute poisonings.

Equal protection from environmental health hazards for individuals, groups or communities, regardless of race, ethnicity, or economic status. Environmental justice applies to the setting, implementation and enforcement of laws, regulations and environmental policy. Environmental justice aims to prevent situations where a particular social group is forced to shoulder a disproportionate share of damage from pollution, environmental health risks and the like, due to lack of economic or political power.

An environmental standard is a criterion (typically quantifiable) against which environmental quality can be assessed. The standard may apply to, among other things, industrial processes, pollutants, various facilities, products and vehicles. The adoption of the standard by a legally authorized body grants it an official and binding status. However, a standard can also be part of recommended guidelines, or a voluntary professional code, whose legitimacy derives from another source, such as the scientific authority or the market power of the standard-setting body. An environmental standard is typically based on risk assessment, while taking into account, among other things, economic considerations, the availability of technology and safety factors.

The study of the adverse effects of environmental pollutants in air, dust, sediment, soil and water, and natural toxins in the environment, on living organisms and the ecosystem.

The study of the distribution of diseases in populations and of factors that influence the occurrence of disease. Epidemiology examines epidemic (excess) and endemic (always present) diseases; it is based on the observation that most diseases do not occur randomly, but are related to environmental and personal characteristics that vary by place, time, and subgroup of the population. The epidemiologist attempts to determine who is prone to a particular disease; where risk of the disease is highest; when the disease is most likely to occur and its trends over time; what exposure its victims have in common; how much the risk is increased through exposure; and how many cases of the disease could be avoided by eliminating the exposure.

A quantitative or qualitative evaluation of environmental exposure, which considers the intensity, frequency and duration of contact with a chemical (or other) agent, as well as the number of people exposed, the route of exposure (e.g. dermal, oral or respiratory), chemical intake or uptake rate, the amount of the chemical a person or population were exposed to and the amount absorbed.

Particulate matter, or PM, is a mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets in the air. PM is made up of several components including acids (such as nitrates and sulfates), organic chemicals, metals and soil or dust particles. The size of the particles is directly linked to their health effects, the most problematic being inhalable particles, that is particles smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter. Fine particles are 2.5 micrometers and smaller in diameter. They are caused by forest fires and by fuel combustion in industry (e.g. energy production) and transport (especially automobiles running on diesel). The microscopic size of the particles enables them to enter deep into the lungs. Research has linked particle pollution exposure to a variety of health problems such as increased respiratory problems and Asthma as well as premature death in people with heart or lung disease.

Global environmental change includes changes in the physical and biogeochemical environment such as climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and stresses on ecosystems, either caused naturally or influenced by human activities such as deforestation, fossil fuel, water and land consumption, urbanization, intensive agriculture, over-exploitation of fisheries and waste production. Global environmental change causes direct and indirect hazards to human health and requires the recognition that the long-term safeguarding of human health depends on the functioning of the biosphere's life-supporting systems.
For more information: http://www.who.int/globalchange/en

A combination of procedures, methods, and tools by which a policy, program, or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects within the population. An HIA can provide recommendations to increase positive health outcomes and to minimize adverse outcomes. A major benefit of the HIA is that it brings public health issues to the attention of decision-makers in areas, such as transportation or land use, which do not traditionally deal with health.
For more information: http://www.who.int/hia/en

Research that integrates information, concepts, methodology, data, tools, training, perspectives and/or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge, so as to advance knowledge or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline or research field. Interdisciplinary research is not just the combination of two disciplines but, rather, an integration and synthesis of ideas and methods to create a new field. As such it differs from multidisciplinary research, which involves various disciplines, but in which researchers typically focus on their particular fields of research.

NEHAPs are government documents that address environmental health problems in a comprehensive, holistic and intersectoral manner. Most NEHAPs address environmental health management (including information systems, environmental health services, public information and participation, education, research and economic tools), environmental health hazards (including ambient air, drinking and bathing water, noise, radiation, food safety, housing and workplace), and economic sectors (including industry, agriculture, transportation and energy).
For more information: http://www.euro.who.int/envhealthpolicy/plans/20020807_1

A policy principle that justifies anticipatory action to prevent serious or irreversible threats to human health or the environment, even when there is scientific uncertainty regarding the nature of these threats or their likelihood. There is no one accepted definition for the principle and it is open to different interpretations. For example, the German interpretation of the principle focuses on risk reduction based on the best available technology, the EC official interpretation considers the principle a risk management tool to be used so long as scientists cannot provide satisfactory answers, and a radical interpretation recognizes our ignorance with regard to the complexity of environmental and health risks and promotes changes in production and consumption to prevent them (e.g. using 'clean production').

A field which combines basic and applied research as well as education, social sciences, economics and management, in order to promote the health and welfare of the individual and the community. The field includes activities focused on reducing factors that contribute to the burden of disease as well as activities that promote the health of the community, which include, among others, the assessment and monitoring of public health, policy formulation, preventive medicine and health education.

Risk assessment is conducted to estimate damage or injury, which could be caused from exposure to a given environmental hazard. It is a methodology that combines information on the risk from various sources in order to provide a basis for decision-making and regulation. A health risk assessment typically includes hazard identification, exposure assessment, a dose-response assessment and risk characterization.

The National Research Council (NRC) defines risk communication as "an interactive process of exchange of information and opinion among individuals, groups, and institutions." The concept relates to a range of activities directed at increasing the public's knowledge of risk issues and participation in risk management. Such activities include, for example, warning labels for consumers about potential hazards in the use of a product, development of publicly accessible databases, or a public hearing on the risks of a new technology. Risk communication is a relatively new field, which developed in the early 1980s following research that showed a difference in risk perception between experts and the public, a fact that made justifying decisions on risks post facto problematic. Nowadays, risk communication is viewed as a dialogue among interested parties: risk experts, policy makers, and affected segments of the public.
EPA’s Seven Cardinal Rules of Risk Communication: http://www.epa.gov/CARE/library/7_cardinal_rules.pdf

The process of weighing policy alternatives and selecting appropriate regulation based on the results of risk assessment and incorporating social, economic, political and moral concerns. Risk assessment provides input for the decision-maker, but cannot answer the question: 'is the risk acceptable?' Risk management provides an answer to this question as well as other questions such as the tradeoff between the cost of preventing or reducing the risk and the expected benefits, how uncertainties should be considered, what risks may arise as a consequence of regulation and which risks should be prioritized. Increasingly, risk perception and risk communication with the public are recognized as integral elements in the process of risk management.

There are chemical exposures at low doses that do not result in observed negative health effects. When exposure to the pollutant concentration reaches a certain level where adverse health effects are observed this is known as the threshold. Terms used in these cases are typically 'No Observed Adverse Effect Level' (NOAEL) and 'Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level' (LOAEL). With regard to carcinogenic effects of toxic substances it is generally assumed that in theory any concentration of the substance might cause the future development of cancer and therefore there is no threshold ('non-threshold').
For more information: http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc210.htm#SubSectionNumber:4.3.1