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Critical Condition: Human Health and the Environment
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Eric Chivian, Michael McCally, Howard Hu, and Andrew Haines; eds. 244 pages. Boston: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press; 1993. $15.95.
Our world is an increasingly small place; events occurring in remote places on the earth are now broadcast over public airways within minutes, defying barriers of time and distance. The joys of success and the pains of disaster from all corners of the earth are felt worldwide in a matter of hours. In addition, we are intricately linked to each other within one global environment. Environmental events in one area of our planet may have an effect on us all. Clearly, human health directly depends on the health of the environment in which we exist. Pollution, acid rain, ozone depletion, and overpopulation are but a few examples of major environmental threats to human health. Unfortunately, the consequences of environmental degradation have largely been ignored by modern medicine; the medical establishment has provided little leadership on this issue. As a global community, we must begin to address environmental threats before they reach disastrous proportions and cause widespread human disease and suffering.
Critical Condition: Human Health and the Environment is a report by the Physicians for Social Responsibility on the condition of our global environment. It is an introduction to current environmental threats to human health. This book does not offer a comprehensive review of the potential health effects of all environmental problems; that is not its purpose. Such an endeavor would require many textbooks. Instead, the text is a well-referenced introduction to these problems and will appeal to health professionals as well as to those in other fields.
Written by a group of distinguished physicians, the book covers topics of grave importance to the health of our global community, including world population growth; air, water, and land pollution; occupational exposure; and biodiversity. These issues are of critical importance to each of us, although all too often their effects are frighteningly subtle. They affect our lives and will have an even greater effect on the health of our children and of generations to come. The issues and health risks discussed are scientifically founded and not exaggerated. At a minimum, this book is a call for awareness, concern, and action by the health care community. As leaders in health care, it is only proper that physicians be at the forefront of those addressing environmental concerns. Our work must become global; to ignore what is happening elsewhere in the world will have grave consequences for each of us.
Critical Condition is a well-written guide to environmental and human health issues that should not be ignored. Recent political changes have finally made it appear possible to work as a global community. We should take advantage of this to work toward improved health for all.
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