IngentaConnect Was will und was kann die Umweltmedizin? The Goals and Potentials...

Author: Herbarth, Olf

Source: GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, Volume 12, Number 3, 1 August 2003 , pp. 196-200(5)

Abstract:

It is increasingly evident that environmental factors are involved in the causation of disease processes. Epidemiological studies attempt to determine which environmental factors can be considered risk factors as well as their order of significance (i.e. risk ranking). Two kinds of research are described here, population-oriented epidemiological research and individual-based research in environmental medicine. From each of these research branches a study is presented.

The first study examined whether the exposure to the noxious substances found outdoors during the time passed outdoors was more dangerous than the exposure to noxious substances found indoors during the time passed there. The study showed that exposure to noxious substances found indoors poses a greater risk for newborns and preschool children of respiratory diseases, infections and allergies than outdoor exposure. The second, separate study analyzed the effects on children of remediation efforts. Using a special developed diagnostic tool, improvement in the children's liver detoxification capacity could be shown over the observed time span. To thus learn about the effectiveness of remediation efforts undertaken in highly polluted industrial areas, pollution-associated physiological and/or biochemical parameters had to be investigated, which required specific and sensitive diagnostic test methods.

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Was will und was kann die Umweltmedizin? The Goals and Potentials of Environmental Medicine

Was will und was kann die Umweltmedizin?
The Goals and Potentials of Environmental Medicine