Environment and human health

The great French surgeon Leriche once said, "To be in good health is to live in the silence of one's organs." For Nature it is exactly the contrary, but one must not forget that the environment may strike in silence, as demonstrated by the accidents at Jintsu and Minamata in Japan. Close to 10 years were necessary to understand the mechanisms of deadly cadmium and mercury intoxications in humans. Two kinds of stresses to humans may come from the environment: (i) infectious disease, and (ii) unexpected, more-or-less complex chemical reactions.