Selected Topics - Environmental Health

Events

• School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW - Upcoming Events

Global policies and related documents

• Declaration of Santa Cruz de la Sierra
  This statement came out of the conference on sustainable development in the Americas held in Santa Cruz, Bolivia September 1996
• Development of a Sanitation Policy and Practice in South Africa
  This is a governmental policy paper (from 2002) outlining sanitation principles and policies for South Africa
• Earth Summit +5 - 23-27 June 1997 in New York
  This is the official web-site providing all documents and materials
• Millennium Development Goals
  "The International Development Goals set targets for reductions in poverty, improvements in health and education, and protection of the environment. They distill the experience of many years, expressed in the resolutions of major United Nations conferences. The goals have been adopted by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the members of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD, and many other agencies. "

Reports, guidelines and projects

• A preliminary study of dengue infection in Brunei
  The purpose of this study b y Osmali Osman, Mun Yik Fong and Shamala Devi, published in the Japanese Journal of Infectious Diseases in 2007, was “to examine the extent of dengue infection in Brunei and to determine the predominant serotype circulating in the country.”
• Ambient Air Quality Standards Settings: An approach to health-based hazard assessment
  There is a substantial body of evidence showing that air pollution in urban areas affects human health. This Report represents consensus between the health and environment sectors in Australia on a common approach to the hazard assessment component of setting air quality standards. It will enable the health sector to develop information in ways that effectively support an evidence-based decision-making process within the environment sector.
• Asymmetries of Poverty: Why Global Burden of Disease Valuations Underestimate the Burden of Neglected Tropical Diseases
  "…The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) initially appeared attractive as a health metric in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) program, as it purports to be a comprehensive health assessment that encompassed premature mortality, morbidity, impairment, and disability. It was originally thought that the DALY would be useful in policy settings, reflecting normative valuations as a standardized unit of ill health. However, the design of the DALY and its use in policy estimates contain inherent flaws that result in systematic undervaluation of the importance of chronic diseases, such as many of the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), in world health…".
• Baltic Sea Project
  "The first regional project within UNESCO Associated Schools Project to combine environmental education on a specific environmental issue, the Baltic Sea and intercultural learning"
• Chernobyl Catastrophe Consequences on Human Health
  This Greenpeace Report "...challenges the UN International Atomic Energy Agency Chernobyl Forum report, which predicted 4,000 additional deaths attributable to the accident as a gross simplification of the real breadth of human suffering. The new data, based on Belarus national cancer statistics, predicts approximately 270,000 cancers and 93,000 fatal cancer cases caused by Chernobyl. The report also concludes that on the basis of demographic data, during the last 15 years, 60,000 people have additionally died in Russia because of the Chernobyl accident, and estimates of the total death toll for the Ukraine and Belarus could reach another 140,000. "
• Does biofuel smoke contribute to anemia and stunting in early childhood?
  Reliance on biomass fuels for cooking and heating exposes many women and young children in developing countries to high levels of air pollution indoors. Exposure to biomass smoke has been linked to reduced birth weight, acute respiratory infections, and childhood mortality. This Measure DHS study examines the association between household use of biofuels (wood, dung, and crop residues) for cooking and heating and prevalence of anemia and stunting in children.
• Ecosystems and Human Well-Being
  The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is a four year international scientific assessment of the consequences of ecosystem changes for human well being. This report synthesises the key messages of the Millennium Assessment (MA) and discusses the implications of the MA findings for the business community.
• European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
  The Foundation is a tripartite European Union body set up in 1975 to contribute to the planning and establishment of better living and working conditions.
• Environmental Health Project
  Established by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to further the agency's goals of reducing illness and death due to environmental conditions in developing nations, this site is no longer being updated, however it does contain valuable resources in the International Environmental Health Field.
• Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident and Special Health Care Programmes
  Some 5,000 people who were children and adolescents at the time of the world’s worst-ever civil nuclear accident at Chernobyl, Ukraine, have so far been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and there may be up to 9,000 excess cancer deaths, according to this United Nations study examining the health impact of the disaster.
• Heat–health action plans
  "Climate change is leading to variations in weather patterns and an apparent increase in extreme weather events, including heat-waves. Recent heat-waves in Europe have led to a rise in related mortality but the adverse health effects of hot weather and heat-waves are largely preventable. Prevention requires a portfolio of actions at different levels, including meteorological early warning systems, timely public and medical advice, improvements to housing and urban planning and ensuring that health care and social systems are ready to act. These actions can be integrated into a defined heat–health action plan. This [WHO] guidance results from the EuroHEAT project on improving public health responses to extreme weather/heat-waves, co-funded by the European Commission. It explains the importance of the development of heat–health action plans, their characteristics and core elements, with examples from several European countries that have begun their implementation and evaluation."
• HORIZON Communications Solutions
  The purpose of this site is to provide a forum for the presentation of solutions to vital concerns in the areas of health, population, development and the environment.
• How Environmental Health Risks Change With Development
  This report provides a full empirical test of the environmental risk transition framework, which describes the shift in environmental risks during development from household, community, and global risk factors. It finds that the simplistic conclusions commonly drawn about the epidemiologic transition, in particular the increase in chronic diseases with development, are not supported by current data; in contrast, the conceptual framework of the environmental risk transition is broadly supported in a cross-sectional analysis. It also describe important kinds of environmental health risks and diseases that are not well estimated using current methods.
• Human Development Report 2006: Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis
  "Throughout history water has confronted humanity with some of its greatest challenges. Water is a source of life and a natural resource that sustains our environments and supports livelihoods – but it is also a source of risk and vulnerability. In the early 21st Century, prospects for human development are threatened by a deepening global water crisis. Debunking the myth that the crisis is the result of scarcity, this report argues poverty, power and inequality are at the heart of the problem...."
• Human Development Report 2007 - Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world
  This report by the United Nations Development Programme "provides a stark account of the threat posed by global warming. It argues that the world is drifting towards a “tipping point” that could lock the world’s poorest countries and their poorest citizens in a downward spiral, leaving hundreds of millions facing malnutrition, water scarcity, ecological threats, and a loss of livelihoods… Today, we are witnessing at first hand what could be the onset of major human development reversal in our lifetime. Across developing countries, millions of the world’s poorest people are already being forced to cope with the impacts of climate change. These impacts do not register as apocalyptic events in the full glare of world media attention. They go unnoticed in financial markets and in the measurement of world gross domestic product (GDP). But increased exposure to drought, to more intense storms, to floods and environmental stress is holding back the efforts of the world’s poor to build a better life for themselves and their children. Climate change will undermine international efforts to combat poverty."
• Impact of Climate Change and Bioenergy on Nutrition
  Food security has four dimensions: food availability, access to food, stability of supply and access and safe and healthy food utilization. Food security is a key factor in good nutrition, along with health, sanitation and care practices. The paper begins by laying out the current state of global food insecurity and malnutrition, including magnitude, trends and future projections. The causes, consequences and costs of food insecurity and malnutrition are explored. Malnutrition is clearly a severe impediment to sustainable development and human security as it slows down economic growth and the achievement of equity. The paper briefly lays out a number of factors besides climate change, bioenergy and rising prices that will likely contribute to malnutrition in the future. The paper then explores the implications of climate change and rising bioenergy demand for nutrition. Agricultural activities contribute to climate change, but can also play an important role in adaptation and mitigation strategies, as well as in boosting food availability. Next, the paper examines the direct nutrition effects of rising bioenergy demand, as well as its contribution to rising food prices. It also discusses potential strategies for cultivation of bioenergy crops that can contribute to poverty reduction, food security and sustainable natural resource management. A chapter on policy implications provides a number of options for improving food security and nutrition, as well as for addressing the links between climate change and bioenergy demand on the one hand and nutrition on the other. The paper concludes with recommendations.
• My Health My World Project
  "This project has developed educational materials on current environmental issues for students in grades K-4. Its goal is to promote a deeper understanding of the relationships between the environment and health, while conveying the excitement of "doing science" with elementary school students."
• Preventing Disease through Healthy Environments: Towards an estimate of the environmental burden of disease
  "How much disease could be prevented through better management of our environment? The environment influences our health in many ways — through exposures to physical, chemical and biological risk factors, and through related changes in our behavior in response to those factors. To answer this question, the available scientific evidence was summarized and more than 100 experts were consulted for their estimates of how much environmental risk factors contribute to the disease burden of 85 diseases. This report summarizes the results globally, by 14 regions worldwide, and separately for children. The evidence shows that environmental risk factors play a role in more than 80% of the diseases regularly reported by the World Health Organization. Globally, nearly one quarter of all deaths and of the total disease burden can be attributed to the environment. In children, however, environmental risk factors can account for slightly more than one-third of the disease burden."
• Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: Special Focus on Sanitation
  "This report details global progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target for drinking water and sanitation, and what these trends suggest for the remainder of the Water for Life Decade 2005-2015. In recognition of the large sanitation deficit, and the declaration of 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation, the report has a special focus on sanitation. It opens with a review of the current status of sanitation and an assessment of progress towards the sanitation target included in the MDGs. The report also introduces a separate assessment of global, regional and country progress using the ‘sanitation ladder’ – a new way of analysing sanitation practices that highlights trends in using improved, shared and unimproved sanitation facilities and the trend in open defecation. Trends in drinking water coverage are presented in a similar format. They are disaggregated in a ‘drinking water ladder’, which shows the percentage of the world population that uses piped connections into a dwelling, plot or yard; other improved water sources; and unimproved sources. New data are also presented on the time taken to collect drinking water. The data show the proportion of people that spend more than 30 minutes on a single water-hauling trip and are thus likely to compromise their daily water consumption. In addition, survey data on who usually fetches water are presented to show how this burden is distributed among women, men, girls and boys. Finally, the report provides a new perspective on progress. The country, regional and global estimates, starting on page 41, include a statistic on the proportion of the population that gained access to improved drinking water and sanitation since 1990. The intention is to recognize those countries that have made significant progress despite major obstacles, including low levels of coverage in 1990, rapid population growth or both."
• Promoting Public Health through Smart Growth: Building healthier communities through transportation and land use policies and practices
  This report explains how our built environment shapes our transportation choices, and in turn, human health. It reviews the existing research for a range of transportation-related health impacts on seven public health outcomes: Physical Activity and Obesity, Air Quality, Traffic Safety, Noise, Water Quality, Mental Health and Social Capital.
• RRojas Databank The political economy of development studies
  The purpose of this site is to publish electronic versions of books, papers, notes and statistical and analytical material related to economics and development studies and to facilitate easy access to major sources of academic information for development studies.
• State of the Planet 2004: Mobilizing the sciences to fight global poverty
  For two days, scientists from around the world gathered at Columbia University to examine the relationship between the human condition and the condition of the Earth. Focusing on four essential determinants of human well-being – energy, food, health and water – these leading experts assessed how science and technology can best be mobilized to achieve sustainable development.
• Stratospheric Ozone and Human Health Project
  This project aims to provide data and resources in the areas of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, ozone, and human health impacts of UV exposure for use by researchers, educators, government officials, health providers, students, and the general public.
• Sustainable Measures
  Sustainable Measures develops indicators that measure progress towards a sustainable economy society and environment
• Valuing Health for Regulatory Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
  “….Promoting human health and safety by reducing exposures to risks and harms through regulatory interventions is among the most important responsibilities of the government. Such efforts encompass a wide array of activities in many different contexts: improving air and water quality; safeguarding the food supply; reducing the risk of injury on the job, in transportation, and from consumer products; and minimizing exposure to toxic chemicals. Valuing Health for Regulatory Cost-Effectiveness Analysis provides useful recommendations for how to measure health-related quality of- life impacts for diverse public health, safety, and environmental regulations."
• Vulnerability to Change in Ecosystem Services
  In this report, published by the Center for International Development at Harvard University (2005), the author Dagmar Shroter examines human dependence on ecosystems and the services ecosystems provide. She demonstrates how past unsustainable use of ecosystem services lead to human harm and explores how environmental scientists and policy makers can facilitate sustainable management and lessen future vulnerability.
• Water for Life: Making it Happen
  This report published by WHO as we enter the International Decade for Action Water for Life 2005-2015 asserts that every day, diarrhoeal diseases from easily preventable causes claim the lives of approximately 5 000 people, most of them young children. Sufficient and better quality drinking water and basic sanitation can cut this toll dramatically, and simple, low-cost household water treatment has the potential to save further lives.
• World Water Development Report: Water for People, Water for Life
  "The UN World Water Development Report is the joint effort of 24 UN agencies and entities involved in water resources management. It is produced on their behalf by the UN World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) whose secretariat is based at UNESCO. Its 15 chapters, each prepared by the various participating agencies, present a detailed analysis of the situation in all of the world's regions, backed up by the latest available data, maps and graphs, along with 17 case studies and numerous examples of good and bad practices in water governance."

Educational resources

• Chemical Industry Archives
  The Chemical Industry Archives consists of thousands of internal documents from the chemical industry and its national trade associations. The archive campaigns to expose what it considers the harmful effects of some chemicals in our environment.
• Climate change and human health (USA)
  Located at Johns Hopkins University, this site provides recent and relevant information about the potential impacts of climate change. It aims to communicate current scientific research to support policy development and analysis
• Education for Sustainable Development Kit
  The Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit is a manual for individuals and organizations from both the education and community sectors. This resource addresses the potentially powerful alliance of school systems and communities working together to reach local sustainability goals.
• EcoSystem Information (Canada)
  "Information related to ecosystems in the Pacific and Yukon Region. This includes state of the environment reporting, environmental indicators, and programs and reports on ecosystem science, monitoring and research"
• EnviroLink
  The Envirolink Network is a non-profit organization providing access to online environmental resources since 1991
• Environmental Health Perspectives
  The homepage of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives,this page also provides links to a variety of environmental health resources including reports and other web pages
• FAO GeoNetwork
  "FAO GeoNetwork is a tool to fight hunger and rural poverty by using satellite imagery, spatial databases and interactive maps to help developing countries isolate the causes of food shortages was launched by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. ... Users overlay maps from multiple servers housed at development institutions worldwide to create customized thematic maps on their own computers covering such variables as land cover, soil quality, vegetation, population density and marketing access. ...When an emergency occurs, the maps created by the different agencies in their respective fields of expertise can be combined to see the relationship between different factors affecting the populations and the environment..."
• Global Warming Information Center
  Provides up-to-date resources on global warming
• Glossary: Global Warming
  Provided by the Environmental Protection Agency of the USA
• Griffith ECOHOTline
  A project of the Faculty of Built Environment, Griffith University Brisbane Australia, this hotline has been developed for secondary school students to research and write assignments on environmental topics
• Health: An Ecosystems Approach
  Part of the International Development Research Centre Canada. This site explores the ecosystem approach to health which recognizes the inextricable links between humans and their biophysical, social, and economic environments, and that these links are reflected in a population’s state of health
• Ozone Hole Tour
  Created by scientists at the Centre for Atmospheric Science at Cambridge University the Ozone Hole Tour illustrates some of the research work on ozone depletion carried out at the centre.
• PopPlanet
  PopPlanet is an information, education, and decision-making tool that policy makers, field staff, researchers, project managers, educators, and the interested public can use to gain insight about the challenges and opportunities that face different regions and countries in key population, health and environment area.
• Public health response to heat-waves: a set of information sheets
  1. Recommendations for the public during heat-waves; 2. Vulnerable population groups; 3. Recommendations for general practitioners; 4. Some recommendations for retirement and care home managers; 5. Adverse effects of drugs during hot weather; 6. Considerations for medical professionals regarding drinking recommendations during hot weather and heat-waves; 7. Key principles of heat risk communication; 8. Mild and moderate heat illnesses and their management; 9. Management of life-threatening heatstroke; and 10. Reducing indoor temperatures during hot weather
• Rachel Carson Homepage
  A website dedicated to the life and legacy of Rachel Carson the pioneering biologist, writer, ecologist and the author of Silent Springwhich looks at the effects of insecticides and pesticides on songbird populations throughout the USA.
• RareHope.com
  Website focusing on information on mesothelioma, and causes and treatment of this rare and potent form of cancer. With asbestos being the main cause, there is growing public awareness to stop its use in industries. It has lately been discovered in toys and in old construction sites at the rime of demolition.
• Right-to-Know Network
  Provides access to numerous databases, text files, and conferences on the environment, housing, and sustainable development.
• SustainableWorld.com
  This site has been developed to help government officials, students, researchers and others interested in development issues to find sources of national economic and social data online. The site also examines some of the issues which complicate the work of anyone wanting to use this data.
• Universities Council on Water Resources
  About 90 universities in the United States and throughout the world comprise the Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR) organization. Member institutions engage in education, research, public service, international activities, and information support for policy development related to water resources
• World's Water
  "A site dedicated to providing up-to-date water information and data and web connections to organizations, institutions, and individuals working on a wide range of global freshwater problems and solutions"
• WWW Virtual Library: Sustainable development

Organisations and Networks

UN and multinational

• IRC - International Water and Sanitation Centre
  "Working with partners in developing countries, this centre aims to strengthen local capacities by sharing information and experience and developing resource centres emphasising the introduction of communication, gender, participation, community management and affordable technologies into water and sanitation programmes."
• UN Economic and Social Development Website
  This site outlines the United Nations economic and social development programmes
• WHO - Environmental Burden of Disease: Country Profile - Canada
  “For the first time, WHO presents country data on the burden of disease that is preventable through healthier environments… The country profiles provide an overview of summary information on selected parameters that describe the environmental health situation of a country, as well as a preliminary estimate of health impacts caused by environmental risks. Such preliminary estimates can be used as an input to more refined estimates of a country's health impacts. These country estimates are a milestone in a first step to assisting national decision-makers in the sectors of health and environment to set priorities for preventive action. The first step is to quantify burden, and now the second step is for countries to select the appropriate interventions.”
• WHO Program on Protection of the Human Environment
  WHO Environmental Health Indicators: Framework and Methodologies

Government

• National Air Pollution Surveillance Network (Canada)
  "Established in 1969 as a joint program of the federal and provincial governments to monitor and assess the quality of the ambient air in Canadian urban centres"
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (USA)
  "The aim of this organisation is to reduce the burden of human illness and dysfunction from environmental causes by understanding each of these elements and how they interrelate. It achieves its mission through multidisciplinary biomedical research programs, prevention and intervention efforts, and communication strategies that encompass training, education, technology transfer and community outreach."
• US Global Change Research Information Office (GCRIO)
  Provides access to data and information on global change research, adaptation/ mitigation strategies and technologies and global change related educational resources on behalf of the US Global Change Research Program and its participating Federal Agencies and Organisations.

Non Government

• Australian Council for International Development (ACFID)
  The coordinating body for some 90 Australian non-government organisations working in the field of overseas aid and development
• Both ENDS: Environment and Development Service for NGOs (Netherlands)
  BothEnds aims to contribute to responsible management of nature and the natural environment by strengthening fellow NGOs and community groups working on these issues, especially in developing countries
• Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology (University of Florida)
  "This center serves as a focal point at the University of Florida for activities concerning the effects of chemicals on human and animal health and as an interface between basic research and its application for evaluation of human health and environmental risks. The interface includes an educational component to transfer this knowledge to producers, consumers and regulators."
• Center for Health, Environment and Justice (USA)
  "CHEJ is a national US environmental organisation founded and led by grass roots leader. It has worked with communities on a broad range of environmental issues including toxic waste, solid waste, air pollution, incinerators, medical waste, radioactive waste, pesticides, sewage and industrial pollution."
• Center for Health and the Global Environment
  "This center, at Harvard Medical School was founded to further the understanding of the relationship between human health and the health of the global environment for both policy makers and the public."
• Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (United Kingdom)
  Founded in 1883, this organisation represents the professional interests of around 9,100 environmental health officers. It offers a range of professional educational and membership services to practitioners and to those interested in environmental health as well as operating a trading company which produces environmental health publications training courses, conferences, exhibitions and seminars
• Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (USA)
  A resource centre for community groups working on environmental justice issues providing information / publications, direct assistance to groups, outreach, referral and network development and training / leadership development.
• Centre for Environment and Human Settlements
  "An international centre providing teaching, training, research & development and other knowledge-based services & resources in the fields of environment and human settlements for developing countries"
• Community Development Society
  "Founded in 1969,The Community Development Society is a professional association for community development practitioners and citizen leaders around the world. CDS members represent a variety of fields: education, health care, social services, government, utilities, economic development practitioners, citizen groups, and more. We are all united in our belief that community is the basic building block of society."
• Community Tool Box
  Provided by the University of Kansas.
• DFID Health Resource Centre
  "The Health Resources Centre's mission is based on the need to develop national and international responses and interventions that directly improve the health and well-being of individuals living in the poorest countries of the world. To this end the HRC provides technical assistance, rapid response policy briefings and knowledge support on all aspects of international public health to the UK Department for International Development and its partners in developing countries."
• Earth Council
  The Earth Council is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) created in 1992 as a direct result of the Earth Summit. Its mission is to support and empower people in building a more secure, equitable and sustainable future.
• EarthCharter Consultation Website
  "The objective of the Earth Charter is to set forth an inspiring vision of the fundamental principles of a global partnership for sustainable development and environmental conservation."
• Environmental Working Group (USA)
  A content provider for public interest groups and concerned citizens who are campaigning to protect the environment the Environmental Working Group produces reports, articles, technical assistance and develops computer databases and internet resources drawing on analyses of government and other data.
• European Federation for Transport and Environment
  "A European umbrella for non-governmental organisations working in the field of transport and the environment, promoting an environmentally responsible approach to transport"
• European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change
  The European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change was established by EEA in 2001. This centre builds on the experience gained by the former ETC's on Air Emissions and Air Quality.
• Global System for Sustainable Development (MIT)
  A Consortium for sustainable development, this organisation is committed to reducing the gap between knowledge and policy through innovative uses of advanced information technologies to create new knowledge and facilitate transitions toward sustainability.
• Green CrossRoads
  Green Cross International (GCI) is a global, non-aligned networking organization working in the area of environment and sustainable development. It creates partnerships to promote global value change.
• ID21 Development Research
  The ID21 Development Research reporting service offers hundreds of summaries of problem-solving work on critical development dilemmas around the world.
• International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
  ICIMOD is a multidisciplinary, area focussed, mountain based organisation committed to improving the living conditions of mountain communities in sustainable ways. It focuses on the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region providing searchable information resources on sustainable development issues in mountain areas including catalogues, databases and links to the global information network.
• International Federation of Environmental Health
  "Aims to link organisations of environmental health professionals around the world. It has no individual members. Each constituent body appoints members to the Federation Council which is its governing body"
• International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
  IIED is an independent, non-profit organization promoting sustainable patterns of world development through collaborative research, policy studies, networking and knowledge dissemination.
• International Institute for Communication and Development (The Netherlands)
  The International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) assists developing countries to realise locally owned sustainable development by harnessing the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs). IICD works with its partner organisations in selected countries, helping local stakeholders to assess the potential uses of ICTs in development.
• International Solid Waste Association
  "An independent, non-governmental, non-profit making association. ISWA's objective is the maximum exchange of information and experience world-wide on all aspects of solid waste management"
• Loka Institute (USA)
  "A non-profit research and advocacy organization concerned with the social, political, and environmental repercussions of science and technology"
• National Environmental Health Association (USA)
  "NEHA is a professional association aiming to foster more cooperation and understanding between and among environmental health professionals, to contribute to the resolution of worldwide environmental health issues, and to work with other national professional societies to advance the cause, the image, and the professional standing of the environmental health profession."
• Noise Pollution Clearinghouse (USA)
  "A national non-profit organisation with extensive online noise related resources, the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse seeks to raise awareness about noise pollution, create, collect and distribute information and resources regarding noise pollution, strengthen laws and governmental efforts to control noise pollution and establish networks among groups working on noise pollution issues."
• Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
  Located in Great Britain the Overseas Development Institute is engaged in a wide range of policy-related research based around Natural Resources, International Economic Development, and Human Security and Development.
• Panos Institute Caribbean Central America
  "This organisation specialises in generating and providing information for development and in stimulating public debate on environmental and social development issues. Its central belief is that diversity or 'pluralism' in civil society underpins sustainable, people-centred development"
• Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI)
  The Public Entity Risk Institute's mission is to serve public, private, and non-profit organizations as a dynamic, forward thinking resource for the practical enhancement of risk management. PERI provides synergy among existing programs and organizations and serves as a catalyst in the risk management field and a vehicle for allocating greater resources to key needs in risk management.
• Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
  "PANNA campaigns to replace pesticides with ecologically sound alternatives. It works with health, consumer, labor, environment, progressive agriculture and public interest groups in Canada, Mexico and the US to promote healthier, more effective pest management through research, policy development, education, media demonstrations of alternatives and international advocacy."
• Resource Recovery Forum
  Resource Recovery Forum is an international non-profit association of local authorities, universities, Government agencies, NGOs, waste management companies and consultants - based in the UK
• Second Nature
  "A non-profit organization working to help colleges and universities expand their efforts to make environmentally sustainable and just action a foundation of learning and practice. Education for Sustainability (EFS) is a lifelong learning process that leads to an informed and involved citizenry having the creative problem-solving skills, scientific and social literacy, and commitment to engage in responsible individual and cooperative actions."
• Sustainable America
  "A national non-profit organization working to create "new economies" in the United States by implementing sustainable economic development models in urban, suburban and rural regions of the country"
• Sustainable Development Communications Network
  "A group of leading civil society organizations seeking to accelerate the implementation of sustainable development through broader, integrated information and communications about what we know. The network focuses its efforts on integrating Internet communications into broader communication strategies"
• Sustainable Development Primer
  "This primer is a guide to sustainable development thinking and solutions being developed by the Spinning the Web Network members. It includes short background articles, links to more than 1600 critical Network member documents, and suggestions for further exploration on the Internet"
• Urban Poverty and Environment Program
  The Urban Poverty & Environment Program (UPE) is part of Canada's International Development Research Centre. It funds research and activities in developing countries that apply integrated and participatory approaches to reducing environmental burdens on the urban poor and enhancing the use of natural resources for food, water and income security.
• Water for people
  A non-profit organization that helps people in developing countries improve their quality of life by supporting sustainable drinking water, sanitation and hygiene projects.
• Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council
  This organisation which is cosponsored by UNICEF and WHO aims to provide a regular way for water and sanitation sector professionals to exchange views and experiences and develop approaches which will mean faster achievement of the goal of universal sanitation coverage.
• Women's Environment and Development Association
  "An international advocacy network actively working to transform society to achieve a healthy and peaceful planet, with social, political, economic and environmental justice for all through the empowerment of women and their equal participation with men in decision-making from grassroots to global arenas"
• Women in Global Science and Technology Network (WIGSAT)
  WIGSAT is an international non-profit organization. Its mission is to promote the contributions women make in science and technology for development, and to help NGOs, governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies and women themselves to understand the gender dimensions of S &T and the implications of this for development policy and practice.
• World Resources Institute
  World Resources Institute (WRI) is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people's lives. The World Resources Institute's mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth's environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.

Academic Institutions with particular focus in this area

• World Institute of Development, University of the UN
  "The first research and training centre of United Nations University, WIDER is dedicated to the study of major global economic processes for the purpose of fostering widespread improvements in human life and society"
• University of Waterloo (Canada): Waste Management
  Waste Management works toward reduction, reuse and recycling of all resources. By encouraging the reduction of energy consumption, water conservation, the purchase of reused and recycled products, the reusing and recycling of products on campus , and alternate transportation methods, the university reduces its environmental impact and operating costs.
• Griffith University Centre for Environment and Population Health (Australia)
  "The Centre for Environment and Population Health is an Academic Centre that provides a collaborative base for consultancy research, training and policy development. It is committed to a conception of development that brings together our common concerns for population health, environmental quality and economic opportunity. "

Key Conferences, conference and workshop reports

Coming conferences

Conference reports

• From Source Water to Drinking Water: Workshop Summary
  Summary of a workshop of the Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences Research and Medicine, Board on Health Sciences Policy, Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2004

Journals, Newsletters, Forums

• Env-Health Listserv
  The CDC's Env-Health Listserv was created to enable Environmental Health professionals to share information.
• Environmental Health News
  Environmental Health News is published daily by Environmental Health Sciences, a not-for-profit organization founded in 2002 to help increase public understanding of emerging scientific links between environmental exposures and human health. Environmental Health News aggregates links to articles in the world press about environmental health, with daily updates. Topics carried include a broad array of issues in environmental health, including: chemical contamination, water quantity and quality, air pollution, sewage, Mad Cow disease, and genetic engineering, etc. as well as climate change and biodiversity stories with a health dimension.

Bibliographies, Libraries

Public health bookshops

• Public Health bookshop