Environmental Public Health Impacts of Disasters

Environmental Public Health Impacts of Disasters PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309179890
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
Public health officials have the traditional responsibilities of protecting the food supply, safeguarding against communicable disease, and ensuring safe and healthful conditions for the population. Beyond this, public health today is challenged in a way that it has never been before. Starting with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, public health officers have had to spend significant amounts of time addressing the threat of terrorism to human health. Hurricane Katrina was an unprecedented disaster for the United States. During the first weeks, the enormity of the event and the sheer response needs for public health became apparent. The tragic loss of human life overshadowed the ongoing social and economic disruption in a region that was already economically depressed. Hurricane Katrina reemphasized to the public and to policy makers the importance of addressing long-term needs after a disaster. On October 20, 2005, the Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine held a workshop which convened members of the scientific community to highlight the status of the recovery effort, consider the ongoing challenges in the midst of a disaster, and facilitate scientific dialogue about the impacts of Hurricane Katrina on people's health. Environmental Public Health Impacts of Disasters: Hurricane Katrina is the summary of this workshop. This report will inform the public health, first responder, and scientific communities on how the affected community can be helped in both the midterm and the near future. In addition, the report can provide guidance on how to use the information gathered about environmental health during a disaster to prepare for future events.

Environmental Public Health Impacts of Disasters

Environmental Public Health Impacts of Disasters PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309179890
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 100

Get Book Here

Book Description
Public health officials have the traditional responsibilities of protecting the food supply, safeguarding against communicable disease, and ensuring safe and healthful conditions for the population. Beyond this, public health today is challenged in a way that it has never been before. Starting with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, public health officers have had to spend significant amounts of time addressing the threat of terrorism to human health. Hurricane Katrina was an unprecedented disaster for the United States. During the first weeks, the enormity of the event and the sheer response needs for public health became apparent. The tragic loss of human life overshadowed the ongoing social and economic disruption in a region that was already economically depressed. Hurricane Katrina reemphasized to the public and to policy makers the importance of addressing long-term needs after a disaster. On October 20, 2005, the Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine held a workshop which convened members of the scientific community to highlight the status of the recovery effort, consider the ongoing challenges in the midst of a disaster, and facilitate scientific dialogue about the impacts of Hurricane Katrina on people's health. Environmental Public Health Impacts of Disasters: Hurricane Katrina is the summary of this workshop. This report will inform the public health, first responder, and scientific communities on how the affected community can be helped in both the midterm and the near future. In addition, the report can provide guidance on how to use the information gathered about environmental health during a disaster to prepare for future events.

Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters

Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309316227
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 532

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Book Description
In the devastation that follows a major disaster, there is a need for multiple sectors to unite and devote new resources to support the rebuilding of infrastructure, the provision of health and social services, the restoration of care delivery systems, and other critical recovery needs. In some cases, billions of dollars from public, private and charitable sources are invested to help communities recover. National rhetoric often characterizes these efforts as a "return to normal." But for many American communities, pre-disaster conditions are far from optimal. Large segments of the U.S. population suffer from preventable health problems, experience inequitable access to services, and rely on overburdened health systems. A return to pre-event conditions in such cases may be short-sighted given the high costs - both economic and social - of poor health. Instead, it is important to understand that the disaster recovery process offers a series of unique and valuable opportunities to improve on the status quo. Capitalizing on these opportunities can advance the long-term health, resilience, and sustainability of communities - thereby better preparing them for future challenges. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters identifies and recommends recovery practices and novel programs most likely to impact overall community public health and contribute to resiliency for future incidents. This book makes the case that disaster recovery should be guided by a healthy community vision, where health considerations are integrated into all aspects of recovery planning before and after a disaster, and funding streams are leveraged in a coordinated manner and applied to health improvement priorities in order to meet human recovery needs and create healthy built and natural environments. The conceptual framework presented in Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters lays the groundwork to achieve this goal and provides operational guidance for multiple sectors involved in community planning and disaster recovery. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters calls for actions at multiple levels to facilitate recovery strategies that optimize community health. With a shared healthy community vision, strategic planning that prioritizes health, and coordinated implementation, disaster recovery can result in a communities that are healthier, more livable places for current and future generations to grow and thrive - communities that are better prepared for future adversities.

Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health

Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health PDF Author: Matilda van den Bosch
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019103875X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
Human beings have always been affected by their surroundings. There are various health benefits linked to being able to access to nature; including increased physical activity, stress recovery, and the stimulation of child cognitive development. The Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health provides a broad and inclusive picture of the relationship between our own health and the natural environment. All aspects of this unique relationship are covered, ranging from disease prevention through physical activity in green spaces to innovative ecosystem services, such as climate change adaptation by urban trees. Potential hazardous consequences are also discussed including natural disasters, vector-borne pathogens, and allergies. This book analyses the complexity of our human interaction with nature and includes sections for example epigenetics, stress physiology, and impact assessments. These topics are all interconnected and fundamental for reaching a full understanding of the role of nature in public health and wellbeing. Much of the recent literature on environmental health has primarily described potential threats from our natural surroundings. The Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health instead focuses on how nature can positively impact our health and wellbeing, and how much we risk losing by destroying it. The all-inclusive approach provides a comprehensive and complete coverage of the role of nature in public health, making this textbook invaluable reading for health professionals, students, and researchers within public health, environmental health, and complementary medicine.

Disasters and Public Health

Disasters and Public Health PDF Author: Bruce W. Clements
Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
ISBN: 0128019891
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 526

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Book Description
Disasters and Public Health: Planning and Response, Second Edition, examines the critical intersection between emergency management and public health. It provides a succinct overview of the actions that may be taken before, during, and after a major public health emergency or disaster to reduce morbidity and mortality. Five all-new chapters at the beginning of the book describe how policy and law drive program structures and strategies leading to the establishment and maintenance of preparedness capabilities. New topics covered in this edition include disaster behavioral health, which is often the most expensive and longest-term recovery challenge in a public health emergency, and community resilience, a valuable resource upon which most emergency programs and responses depend. The balance of the book provides an in-depth review of preparedness, response, and recovery challenges for 15 public health threats. These chapters also provide lessons learned from responses to each threat, giving users a well-rounded introduction to public health preparedness and response that is rooted in experience and practice. - Contains seven new chapters that cover law, vulnerable populations, behavioral health, community resilience, preparedness capabilities, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, and foodborne threats - Provides clinical updates by new MD co-author - Includes innovative preparedness approaches and lessons learned from current and historic public health and medical responses that enhance clarity and provide valuable examples to readers - Presents increased international content and case studies for a global perspective on public health

The Public Health Consequences of Disasters

The Public Health Consequences of Disasters PDF Author: Eric K. Noji
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019988000X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 487

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Book Description
Natural and man-made disasters--earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, industrial crises, and many others--have claimed more than 3 million lives during the past 20 years, adversely affected the lives of at least 800 million people, and caused more than 50 billion dollars in property damages. A major disaster occurs almost daily in some part of the world. Increasing population densities in flood plains, along vulnerable coastal areas, and near dangerous faults in the earth's crust, as well as the rapid industrialization of developing economies are factors likely to make the threat posed by natural disasters much bigger in the future. Illustrated with examples from recent research in the field, this book summarizes the most pertinent and useful information about the public health impact of natural and man-made disasters. It is divided into four sections dealing with general concerns, geophysical events, weather-related problems, and human-generated disasters. The author starts with a comprehensive discussion of the concepts and role of surveillance and epidemiology, highlighting general environmental health concerns, such as sanitation, water, shelter, and sewage. The other chapters, based on a variety of experiences and literature drawn from both developing and industrialized countries, cover discrete types of natural and technological hazards, addressing their history, origin, nature, observation, and control. Throughout the book the focus is on the level of epidemiologic knowledge on each aspect of natural and man-made disasters. Exposure-, disease-, and health-event surveillance are stressed because of the importance of objective data to disaster epidemiology. In addition, Noji pays particular attention to prevention and control measures, and provides practical recommendations in areas in which the public health practitioner needs more useful information. He advocates stronger epidemiologic awareness as the basis for better understanding and control of disasters. A comprehensive theoretical and practical treatment of the subject, The Public Health Consequences of Disasters is an invaluable tool for epidemiologists, disaster relief specialists, and physicians who treat disaster victims.

Natural Disasters

Natural Disasters PDF Author: Pan American Health Organization
Publisher: Pan American Health Org
ISBN: 9275115753
Category : America
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
Includes statistics.

Biological and Environmental Hazards, Risks, and Disasters

Biological and Environmental Hazards, Risks, and Disasters PDF Author: Ramesh Sivanpillai
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0128205806
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 570

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Book Description
Biological and Environmental Hazards, Risks, and Disasters, Second Edition provides an integrated look at major impacts to the Earth's biosphere caused by diseases, algal blooms, insects, animals, species extinction, deforestation, land degradation, and comet and asteroid strikes, with important implications for humans. This second edition from Elsevier's Hazards and Disasters Series incorporates perspectives from the natural and social sciences to offer in-depth coverage of threats from microscopic organisms to celestial objects and their potential impacts. Contributions from expert biological, health, ecological, environmental, wildlife, physical, and health scientists, readers will gain valuable insights on damages, causality, economic impacts, preparedness, and mitigation. - Provides inter- and multi-disciplinary research accessible to both specialists and non-specialists - Includes newly added chapters on emerging hazards and risks to earth's ecosystems (land conversion and habitat loss) and human health (spread of diseases) - Contains full-color tables, maps, diagrams, illustrations, and photographs of hazardous processes

Handbook of Disaster Research

Handbook of Disaster Research PDF Author: Havidán Rodríguez
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331963254X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 635

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Book Description
This timely Handbook is based on the principle that disasters are social constructions and focuses on social science disaster research. It provides an interdisciplinary approach to disasters with theoretical, methodological, and practical applications. Attention is given to conceptual issues dealing with the concept "disaster" and to methodological issues relating to research on disasters. These include Geographic Information Systems as a useful research tool and its implications for future research. This seminal work is the first interdisciplinary collection of disaster research as it stands now while outlining how the field will continue to grow.

Health-Related Emergency Disaster Risk Management (Health-EDRM).

Health-Related Emergency Disaster Risk Management (Health-EDRM). PDF Author: Emily Ying Yang Chan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783039363155
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Disasters such as earthquakes, cyclones, floods, heat waves, nuclear accidents, and large scale pollution incidents take lives and cause exceptionally large health problems. The majority of large-scale disasters affect the most vulnerable populations, which are often comprised of people of extreme ages, in remote living areas, with endemic poverty, and with low literacy. Health-related emergency disaster risk management (Health-EDRM) [1] refers to the systematic analysis and management of health risks surrounding emergencies and disasters; it plays an important role in reducing hazards and vulnerability along with extending preparedness, response, and recovery measures. This concept encompasses risk analyses and interventions, such as accessible early warning systems, timely deployment of relief workers, and the provision of suitable drugs and medical equipment, to decrease the impact of disaster on people before, during, and after disaster events. Disaster risk profiling and interventions can be at the personal/household, community, and system/political levels; they can be targeted at specific health risks including respiratory issues caused by indoor burning, re-emergence of infectious disease due to low vaccination coverage, and gastrointestinal problems resulting from unregulated waste management. Unfortunately, there has been a major gap in the scientific literature regarding Health-EDRM. The aim of this Special Issue of IJERPH was to present papers describing/reporting the latest disaster and health risk analyses, as well as interventions for health-related disaster risk management, in an effort to address this gap and facilitate major global policies and initiatives for disaster risk reduction.

A Safer Future

A Safer Future PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309045460
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 85

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Book Description
Initial priorities for U.S. participation in the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, declared by the United Nations, are contained in this volume. It focuses on seven issues: hazard and risk assessment; awareness and education; mitigation; preparedness for emergency response; recovery and reconstruction; prediction and warning; learning from disasters; and U.S. participation internationally. The committee presents its philosophy of calls for broad public and private participation to reduce the toll of disasters.