Environmental factors influencing public health and medicine: policy implications

Environmental health threats are increasing throughout the United States, particularly in low-income populations and in communities of color. Environmental science researchers are investigating plausible associations between the environment and human health. As a result, the role and responsibility of the primary care physicians and other health care providers are changing. This paper highlights selected lines of evidence suggesting that clinicians should now consider interactions between humans and their environment as central to providing effective primary care. Subject areas include: exposure to environmental agents, reproductive toxicity, pulmonary disease, neurobehavioral toxicity, endocrine disruptors, mechanisms of environmental disease, and cultural competence. Concerns about these and other environmentally related issues influence the manner in which primary care is practiced now, and will be practiced in the future. Biomedical technology and community awareness demand that physicians pay more attention to advances in environmental medicine. Ironically, one of the least taught subjects in medical school is environmental medicine. To effectively respond to growing concerns about the role of the environment in human health, clinicians, researchers, educators, public policy officials, and the general public must join together to reduce the risk of environmental health threats and improve quality of life.