Health ecology

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Conceptual map illustrating the connections among nonhuman nature, ecosystem services, environmental ethics, environmental justice, and public health.

Health ecology (sometimes called EcoHealth) is an emerging field of study researching how changes in the earth’s ecosystems affect human health. Health ecology examines changes in the biological, physical, social and economic environments and relates these changes to human health. Examples of these changes and their effects abound. Common examples include increases in asthma rates due to air pollution, PCB contamination of game fish in the Great Lakes of the United States, and habitat fragmentation leading to increasing rates of Lyme disease.

History[]

Ecosystem approaches to health, or ecohealth, emerged as a defined field of inquiry and application in the 1990s, primarily through the global research supported by the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa (IDRC), Canada (Lebel, 2003).[1] However, this was a resurrection of an approach to health and ecology that can be traced back, in Western societies, to Hippocrates, and to much earlier eras in Eastern societies. The approach was prominent among many scientists in the 18th and 19th centuries, but fell into disfavour in the twentieth century, when technical professionalism and expertise were assumed to be sufficient to deal with health and disease. In this relatively brief era, evaluation of the negative human health impacts of environmental change (both the natural and built environment) was allotted to the fields of medicine and environmental health. One medicine, as championed by scholars and practitioners such as Calvin Schwabe, was largely considered a marginal activity.

Integrated approaches to health and ecology re-emerged in the 1990s, and included one health, conservation medicine, ecological resilience, ecological integrity, health communities, and a variety of other approaches. These new movements were able to draw on a tradition that stretches from Hippocrates, to Rudolf Virchow and Louis Pasteur, who did not recognize the boundaries between human and animal medicine, and environmental and social change; to William Osler, who was a member of both the McGill medical faculty and the Montreal Veterinary College; Calvin Schwabe, whose 1984 book, Veterinary Medicine and Human Health, is a classic in the field; and James Steele, who founded the first veterinary public health unit in the United States.

Ecohealth approaches as currently practiced are participatory, systems-based approaches to understanding and promoting health and wellbeing in the context of social and ecological interactions. What differentiates these approaches from earlier integrative attempts is a firm grounding in complexity theories and post-normal science (Waltner-Toews, 2004;[2] Waltner-Toews et al., 2008[3]). While a variety of organizations promote integrative approaches such as One Health, the primary funder and promoter of ecohealth in particular, world-wide, is the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa (https://web.archive.org/web/20100126030738/http://www.idrc.ca/ecohealth/).

After a decade of international conferences in North America and Australia under the more contentious umbrella of "ecosystem health", the first "ecosystem approach to human health" (ecohealth) forum was held in Montreal in 2003, followed by conferences and forums in Wisconsin, U.S., and Mérida, Mexico, all with major support from IDRC. Since then the International Association for Ecology and Health, and the journal Ecohealth have established the field as a legitimate scholarly and development activity (www.ecohealth.net).

Differences[]

EcoHealth studies differ from traditional, single discipline studies. A traditional epidemiological study may show increasing rates of malaria in a region, but not address how or why the rate is increasing. An environmental health study may recommend the spraying of a pesticide in certain amounts in certain areas to reduce spread. An economic analysis may calculate the cost and effectiveness per dollar spent on such a program. An EcoHealth study uses a different approach. It brings the multiple specialist disciplines together with members of the affected community before the study begins. Through pre-study meetings the group shares knowledge and adopts a common language. These pre-study meetings often lead to creative and novel approaches and can lead to a more "socially robust" solution. EcoHealth practitioners term this synergy transdisciplinarity, and differentiate it from multidiscipline studies. EcoHealth studies also value participation of all involved groups, including decision makers and believe issues of equity (between gender, socioeconomic classes, age and even species) are important to fully understand the problem to be studied. Jean Lebel (2003) phrased transdisciplinarity, participation and equity the three pillars of EcoHealth (Lebel, 2003).[1] The IDRC now speaks of six principles, instead of three pillars, namely transdisciplinarity, participation, gender and social equity, system-thinking, sustainability and research-to-action (Charron, 2011).[4]

Examples[]

A practical example of health ecology is management of malaria in Mexico. A multi-disciplinary approach succeeded in ending the use of harm DDT while also reducing malaria cases.[5] This study reveals both the nature of the complex interactions of the problem and the extent to which a successful solution must cross research disciplines. The solution involved creative thinking on the part of many individuals, and produced a win-win situation for researchers, business and most importantly, for the community. Although many of the dramatic effects of ecosystem change and much of the research is focused in developing countries, the ecosystem of the built environment in urban areas of the developed world is also a major determinant of human health. Obesity, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease are all directly related to how humans interact with the local urban ecosystem in which they live. Urban design and planning determine car use, food choices available, air pollution levels and the safety and walkability of the neighborhoods in which people live. Other examples of the EcoHealth approach can be found in Linking Social and Ecological Systems: Management Practice and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience, edited by Fikrit Berkes and Carl Folke (1998, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-59140-6) and Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems, edited by Lance H. Gunderson and C. S. Holling (2002, Island Press, ISBN 1-55963-856-7).

Journals[]

Bibliography[]

  • Conservation Medicine: Ecological Health in Practice, edited by Alonso Aguirre, Richard S. Ostfeld, Gary M. Tabor, Carol House, Mary C. Pearl. (2002, Oxford University Press, USA ISBN 0-19-515093-7.)
  • Ecosystem Sustainability and Health, David Waltner-Toews (Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-521-53185-3).
  • The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty and Managing for Sustainability, edited by David Waltner-Toews, James Kay, and Nina-Marie Lister. (Columbia University Press, 2008, ISBN 0-231-13251-4.)
  • In-Focus: HEALTH: An Ecosystem Approach, by Jean Lebel. (IDRC 2003, ISBN 1-55250-012-8.)
  • Linking Social and Ecological Systems: Management Practice and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience, edited by Fikrit Berkes and Carl *Folke (1998, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-59140-6).
  • Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems, edited by Lance H. Gunderson and C. S. Holling (2002, Island Press, ISBN 1-55963-856-7).
  • Sustainability and Health—Supporting Global Ecological Integrity in Public Health, edited by Valerie Brown, John Grootjans, Jan Ritchie, Mardie Townsend and Glenda Verrinder. (Allen and Unwin, Sydney ISBN 1-74114-442-6.)
  • Ecosystems and Human Well-being, Health Synthesis: a report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Carlos Corvalan, Simon Hales, Anthony McMichael. World Health Organisation, 2005.
  • White, Franklin; Stallones, Lorann; Last, John M. (2013). Global Public Health: Ecological Foundations. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-975190-7.

Organizations[]

Conferences[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "International Development Research Centre (IDRC) - Publications". doi:10.1163/_afco_asc_2241. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ Waltner-Toews, David (2004-06-24). Ecosystem Sustainability and Health. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511606748. ISBN 978-0-521-82478-1.
  3. ^ de Roo, Gert (February 2011). "Book review: Book review". Planning Theory. 10 (1): 92–95. doi:10.1177/1473095210382202. ISSN 1473-0952.
  4. ^ Charron, Dominique F. (2011-09-02), "Ecohealth: Origins and Approach", in Charron, D.F. (ed.), Ecohealth Research in Practice, Springer New York, pp. 1–30, doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-0517-7_1, ISBN 978-1-4614-0516-0
  5. ^ In-Focus: HEALTH: An Ecosystem Approach, by Jean Lebel. (IDRC 2003, ISBN 1-55250-012-8.)

Sources[]

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