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Air pollution, water contamination, persistent organic pollutants, pesticides, metals, and radiofrequencies are just some examples of environmental factors that have been linked to adverse health effects such as cancer, respiratory disease and reproductive problems. Environmental epidemiology studies the interaction of disease and these environmental determinants of disease at a population level. Whilst risks associated with environmental exposures are generally small, the exposed population, and hence the population burden of disease, may be large. To detect these small risks, it is therefore essential that related methods and their application are refined. In addition, there is increasing attention on environmental health issues from the public, government, and media, thus raising the profile of envrionmental epidemiology in preventive medicine. This book describes the methods of environmental epidemiology, with emphasis on good practice. It outlines the basic principles of epidemiology and environmental health, and describes in more detail special environmental epidemiological designs that are rarely described in other textbooks. The principles of health risk assessment and forecasting, as well as the application of study data in these types of study, are explored. Several chapters cover practical issues in the conduct of studies, such as field work and data analyses and its requirements. Ethical issues and the role of environmental epidemiology in policy making are also covered.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface: for whom this book is intended(p. v)
• 1 What is environmental epidemiology?(p. 1)
• 1.1 Introduction(p. 1)
• 1.2 Classic environmental epidemiological studies(p. 1)
• 1.3 Scope of environmental epidemiology(p. 7)
• 1.4 Reasons to embark on studies in environmental epidemiology(p. 8)
• 1.5 Environmental epidemiology and related fields(p. 10)
• 2 Review of environmental health and epidemiological principles(p. 15)
• 2.1 Basic principles of environmental health(p. 15)
• 2.2 Review of epidemiological principles(p. 22)
• 3 Environmental exposure assessment(p. 41)
• 3.1 Introduction(p. 41)
• 3.2 Initial considerations of an exposure assessment strategy(p. 41)
• 3.3 Source receptor models and pathways and exposure routes(p. 42)
• 3.4 Exposure parameters(p. 49)
• 3.5 Exposure level and variability(p. 50)
• 3.6 Ecological versus individual exposure estimates(p. 52)
• 3.7 Exposure classification, measurement or modeling(p. 53)
• 3.8 Geographical information systems(p. 60)
• 3.9 Validation studies(p. 65)
• 3.10 Conclusion(p. 65)
• 4 Health effects assessment(p. 73)
• 4.1 Concepts of health effects measurement(p. 73)
• 4.2 Assessment of health effects(p. 77)
• 4.3 Data linkage(p. 89)
• 4.4 Methodological issues in health effects assessment(p. 90)
• 5 Measurement error: consequences and design issues(p. 93)
• 5.1 Introduction(p. 93)
• 5.2 Describing measurement error(p. 94)
• 5.3 The consequences of measurement error in exposure(p. 97)
• 5.4 Design issues(p. 105)
• 5.5 Error in outcomes(p. 110)
• 5.6 Issues not covered in this chapter(p. 110)
• 6 Study design and methods(p. 113)
• 6.1 Introduction(p. 113)
• 6.2 Types of study(p. 114)
• 6.3 Strategy in choosing a study design(p. 140)
• 7 Data analysis(p. 147)
• 7.1 Concepts of data analysis and hypothesis testing(p. 147)
• 7.2 Analysis planning(p. 150)
• 7.3 Data analysis process(p. 155)
• 7.4 Combining study results: meta-analysis of observational studies(p. 165)
• 7.5 Finally(p. 168)
• 8 Special study designs and analyses in environmental epidemiology(p. 171)
• 8.0 Introduction(p. 17)
• 8.1 Time-series(p. 172)
• 8.2 Panel studies(p. 182)
• 8.3 Spatial epidemiology(p. 189)
• 8.4 Investigation of disease clusters(p. 196)
• 8.5 Gene-environment interactions(p. 206)
• 9 The epidemiology of chemical incidents and natural disasters(p. 227)
• 9.1 Introduction(p. 227)
• 9.2 Study design issues(p. 229)
• 9.3 Examples(p. 236)
• 10 Environmental epidemiology in developing countries(p. 249)
• 10.1 Environmental health problems in developing countries(p. 249)
• 10.2 Methodological challenges of environmental epidemiology studies in developing countries(p. 252)
• 10.3 The impact of local research in promoting prevention and control of environmental threats(p. 262)
• 11 Practical issues in study implementation(p. 265)
• 11.1 Steps in study implementation(p. 265)
• 11.2 Study protocol(p. 266)
• 11.3 Ethics review and informed consent(p. 271)
• 11.4 Composition of the study team(p. 273)
• 11.5 Study organization(p. 276)
• 11.6 Study implementation(p. 278)
• 11.7 Tools for data management and analysis(p. 287)
• 12 Stakeholder and participant involvement(p. 293)
• 12.1 Introduction(p. 293)
• 12.2 Stakeholder involvement(p. 294)
• 12.3 Community based participatory research in environmental health(p. 296)
• 12.4 Planning and implementing public participation in studies(p. 297)
• 12.5 Dunsmuir case study(p. 300)
• 13 Ethics and environmental epidemiology(p. 307)
• 13.1 Introduction(p. 307)
• 13.2 Ethical issues in public health(p. 308)
• 13.3 Ethical and legal guidelines for research(p. 311)
• 13.4 Scientific integrity, whistleblowers, and victimized colleagues(p. 313)
• 13.5 Advocacy and hired guns(p. 314)
• 13.6 Confidentiality and privacy(p. 314)
• 13.7 Policy of openness and stakeholder engagement(p. 316)
• 13.8 Communication with the public(p. 317)
• 13.9 Ethics review and informed consent(p. 317)
• 13.10 ISEE ethics guidelines(p. 318)
• 14 Health risk assessment(p. 319)
• 14.1 From environmental epidemiology to public health risk assessment(p. 319)
• 14.2 Classical risk assessment framework(p. 320)
• 14.3 Types of risk assessments(p. 323)
• 14.4 Quantitative methods to derive public health risk(p. 326)
• 14.5 Uncertainties and limitations of risk assessment(p. 338)
• 14.6 Illustrative risk assessment examples(p. 342)
• 15 Using integrated assessment to analyze and forecast the future effects of global environmental change(p. 349)
• 15.1 Introduction(p. 349)
• 15.2 Global environmental changes and their potential health impacts(p. 350)
• 15.3 Challenges to population health research(p. 351)
• 15.4 Integrated assessment of human health impacts(p. 356)
• 15.5 Critical methodological issues in integrated assessment of human health(p. 357)
• 15.6 The way ahead(p. 362)
• 16 The role and limits of epidemiology in policy arguments(p. 365)
• 16.1 Introduction(p. 365)
• 16.2 Upstream and downstream policies(p. 366)
• 16.3 Stakeholders' ethical frameworks drive informational needs and policy preferences(p. 366)
• 16.4 A basic policy question(p. 372)
• 16.5 What epidemiologists can and cannot bring to the decision tree(p. 373)
• 16.6 Alternative framings of the basic policy question(p. 374)
• 16.7 Formatting conclusions to accommodate different frameworks(p. 375)
• 16.8 The structure of causal reasoning by epidemiologists(p. 376)
• 16.9 Conclusion(p. 380)
• Further Information(p. 383)
• Index(p. 387)

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Dean Baker has more than 25 years of research experience in occupational and environmental epidemiology. The primary emphasis of his research has been on community-based epidemiological studies. During the past several years, he has focused on developmental toxicity and children's environmental health. He has conducted several epidemiological research studies examining chronic health effects of gestational and early childhood exposure to heavy metals and organochlorine chemicals. His other area of research has been on the health effects of psychosocial stressors in the workplace and in communities exposed to environmental hazards. In both of these areas, Dr. Baker has made contributions to the epidemiological study design and methods. He was elected 3 times as Secretary-Treasurer of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, and was a founding member. He is an active teacher at the university, directing an occupational medicine residency program and supervising graduate students. Mark J Nieuwenhuijsen has been involved in various environmental exposure assessment, epidemiology, and health risk assessment studies in the Netherlands, the UK, Eastern Europe and the US. His interests include the health effects of chlorination by-products in water, traffic related air pollution and metals, specifically in relation to reproductive, respiratory, renal and cancer effects. He has published over a hundred papers. He graduated from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and went to do a PhD at the National Heart and Lung Institute in London, UK. For his post doc he went to the University of California, Davis, USA after which he took up a faculty position at Imperial College London, UK. In January 2007 he joined the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Barcelona, Spain as a Research Professor. He is associate editor on the journals 'Occupational and Environmental Medicine' and the 'Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology'.