Showing papers on "Environmental health ethics published in 2011"

Encyclopedia of environmental health

Abstract: Environmental health has evolved over time into a complex, multidisciplinary field. Many of the key determinants and solutions to environmental health problems lie outside the direct realm of health and are strongly dependent on environmental changes, water and sanitation, industrial development, education, employment, trade, tourism, agriculture, urbanization, energy, housing and national security. Environmental risks, vulnerability and variability manifest themselves in different ways and at different time scales. While there are shared global and transnational problems, each community, country or region faces its own unique environmental health problems, the solution of which depends on circumstances surrounding the resources, customs, institutions, values and environmental vulnerability. This work contains critical reviews and assessments of environmental health practices and research that have worked in places and thus can guide programs and economic development in other countries or regions. "The Encyclopedia of Environmental Health" seeks to conceptualize the subject more clearly, to describe the best available scientific methods that can be used in characterizing and managing environmental health risks, to extend the field of environmental health through new theoretical perspectives and heightened appreciation of social, economic and political contexts, and to encourage a richer analysis in the field through examples of diverse experiences in dealing with the health-environment interface. "The Encyclopedia of Environmental Health" contains numerous examples of policy options and environmental health practices that have worked and thus can guide programs in other countries or regions. It includes a wide range of tools and strategies that can assist communities and countries in assessing environmental health conditions, monitoring progress of intervention implementation and evaluating outcomes. Key Features: provides a comprehensive overview of existing knowledge in this emerging field; articles contain summaries and assessments of environmental health practices and research, providing a framework for further research; and, places environmental health in the broader context of environmental change and related ecological, political, economic, social, and cultural issues.

Feminist intersectionality: Bringing social justice to health disparities research

Abstract: The principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice are well established ethical principles in health research. Of these principles, justice has received less attention by health researchers. The purpose of this article is to broaden the discussion of health research ethics, particularly the ethical principle of justice, to include societal considerations — who and what are studied and why? — and to critique current applications of ethical principles within this broader view. We will use a feminist intersectional approach in the context of health disparities research to firmly establish inseparable links between health research ethics, social action, and social justice. The aim is to provide an ethical approach to health disparities research that simultaneously describes and seeks to eliminate health disparities.

Environmental Philosophy: From Theory to Practice

Abstract: Environmental philosophy is a hybrid discipline drawing extensively from epistemology, ethics, and philosophy of science and analyzing disciplines such as conservation biology, restoration ecology, sustainability studies, and political ecology. The book being discussed both provides an overview of environmental philosophy and develops an anthropocentric framework for it. That framework treats natural values as deep cultural values. Tradeoffs between natural values are analyzed using decision theory to the extent possible, leaving many interesting question for philosophical deliberation. This framework is supposed to be applicable in practical contexts.

Health Impact Assessments Are Needed In Decision Making About Environmental And Land-Use Policy

Abstract: The importance to public health of environmental decisions—including those about land use, transportation, power generation, agriculture, and environmental regulation—is increasingly well documented. Yet many decision makers in fields not traditionally focused on health continue to pay little if any attention to the important health effects of their work. This article examines the emerging practice of health impact assessment and offers real-world examples of its effective implementation, including studying the impact of nearby highways—a major source of air pollution—on proposed new housing for seniors. The article argues that officials at the federal, state, and local levels should consult health experts and consider using health impact assessments when their decisions on such issues as urban planning, land use, and environmental regulation have the potential to directly affect the conditions in which people live and work.

New Perspectives on the Theory of Justice: Implications for Physical Therapy Ethics and Clinical Practice

Abstract: Recent revisions of physical therapy codes of ethics have included a new emphasis concerning health inequities and social injustice. This emphasis reflects the growing evidence regarding the importance of social determinants of health, epidemiological trends for health service delivery, and the enhanced participation of physical therapists in shaping health care reform in a number of international contexts. This perspective article suggests that there is a "disconnect" between the societal obligations and aspirations expressed in the revised codes and the individualist ethical frameworks that predominantly underpin them. Primary health care is an approach to health care arising from an understanding of the nexus between health and social disadvantage that considers the health needs of patients as expressive of the health needs of the communities of which they are members. It is proposed that re-thinking ethical frameworks expressed in codes of ethics can both inform and underpin practical strategies for working in primary health care. This perspective article provides a new focus on the ethical principle of justice: the ethical principle that arguably remains the least consensually understood and developed in the ethics literature of physical therapy. A relatively recent theory of justice known as the "capability approach to justice" is discussed, along with its potential to assist physical therapy practitioners to further develop moral agency in order to address situations of health inequity and social injustice in clinical practice.

Refounding Environmental Ethics: Pragmatism, Principle, and Practice

Abstract: Acknowledgments 1 Foundations Old and New 2 Democracy and Environmental Ethics: A Justi'cation 3 The Public and Its Environmental Problems 4 Intrinsic Value for Pragmatists 5 Natural Piety, Environmental Ethics, and Sustainability 6 Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics: A Pragmatic Reconciliation 7 Pluralism, Contextualism, and Natural Resource Management: Getting Empirical in Environmental Ethics 8 A Practical Ethics for Ecologists and Biodiversity Managers (with James P. Collins) 9 Conservation after Preservation References Index

Global Health and Global Health Ethics: Justice and research in developing countries

Abstract: Clinical research is a morally complex activity. When properly conducted, it represents a powerful tool for generating information and knowledge that often cannot be obtained by other means. When properly oriented, this knowledge represents the key to advancing the standard of care and creating the policies, practices and interventions that can be used to improve the health of large populations of people. For almost two decades now, clinical research has become an increasingly global enterprise. With the “outsourcing” or “off-shoring” of research, new ethical complexities have arisen that are not easily accommodated within frameworks that are primarily oriented to protecting research participants in a domestic context. In part this is because profound conditions of social, economic and political deprivation and inequality play a fundamental, and sometimes unique, role in cross-national research. Because of such deprivation and inequality, for instance, what is an unreasonable risk for someone in a high-income country (HIC) may represent a valuable opportunity for someone in a low- or middle-income country (LMIC). Similarly, information that has the potential to generate significant social benefits in HICs may be of little relevance to host communities that struggle with poverty and underdeveloped medical, public health and scientific infrastructures. Although there is widespread agreement that international research should not take unfair advantage of the disease and deprivation in LMICs, there is significant disagreement about what conditions need to be met in order to ensure that research is fair and consistent with fundamental principles of justice (Angell, 1997; Lurie & Wolfe, 1997; Crouch & Arras, 1998; Glantz et al ., 1998).

Environmental Ethics: An African Understanding

Abstract: Introduction Africa has a complex history of valuable heritages as well as multifaceted challenges in her cultural-politico evolution. Since primordial times, African people have had a humane and peaceful society and environment informed by a sound ethics. But owing to some internal dynamics in the people's culture and some other external constraints and forces, African states are now experiencing acute developmental challenges which have impacted negatively on their environment. Besides political issues arising from leadership ineptitude and capitalist aggrandizement, which have brought about vices of corruption, injustice, poverty and underdevelopment of the continent, there is now a new dimension to the African crisis. And this is the environmental imbroglio. It is a known fact today that the environment crisis is one of the most pressing and timely concern of our planet in the turn of the 21st century. As a global phenomenon, no society is totally immune against the threats and dangers, which the environmental crisis poses to humanity and our collective planet, the earth. But with respect to the African experience, a vast area of land rich in natural resources of all categories, flora and fauna of immense diversities, the dimension of the global environmental crisis in the continent has a peculiar character. The causes of environmental pollution and degradation, environmental injustice, poverty of effective coping and management strategies in challenging the environmental crisis, and lack of a viable environmental ethics that takes cognizance of the peculiar dynamics of the environmental crisis in Africa are issues worth courting with philosophically. In this paper, therefore, we seek to explore the role of African philosophical thinking on the African environment in particular and the contemporary society and global world order in general. The primary aim of doing this is not to ethno-philosophically describe, merely, how traditional Africans have managed their environment in pristine manner. Nor is the focus of our defense to establish the primacy or superiority of the African option over and above the existing theoretical perspectives in environmental ethics in Western discourse. Rather, the primary objective of this paper is to contribute to the consolidation of an emerging orientation in African environmental ethics and effective environmental management. This paper considers as fundamental, such questions as: what is the condition of the African environment? Why is the African environment pathetic than other regions of the world? What are the efforts made and being made in the process of saving the African environment? Do the Africans care for the environment? What are the imperatives to be taken into consideration in salvaging the African environment from further deterioration? What is the need for an environmental ethics that is African in orientation? How coherent is it with the existing known ethics of the environment: enlightened (weak) anthropocentrism, animal liberation/rights theory, biocentrism and ecocentrism (which include the land ethic, deep ecology and the theory of nature's value)? In addressing this host of fundamental questions, this paper is divided into four parts. Part I proceeds with a discussion of ethics and the environment. The second and third parts of the paper survey the arguments of Ogungbemi and Tangwa respectively on an African understanding of environmental ethics. In the fourth part, we evaluatively posit some critiques of their argument. Ethics and the Environment Ethics is a normative study of the principles of human conduct in relation to justice and injustice, good and evil, right and wrong, and virtue and vice. It questions what ought to be done and the extent to which there is justification for a past action that had been done. By environment, we mean our surroundings, including the life support provided by the air, water, land, animals and the entire ecosystem of which man is but a part (Osuntokun, 2001:293). …

Environmental justice: Social disparities in environmental exposures and health: Overview

Abstract: This article covers theoretical background, concepts, methods, and results of environmental justice as a growing field of community-based public health activities and as an academic issue with increasing research activities in several countries. It gives an introduction to the roots of the environmental justice movement within and outside of the USA and addresses core topics and subsequent development of environmental justice as a useful analytic concept for social disparities in environmental exposures and health. Current research and empiric findings from different countries are used to illustrate possible underlying mechanisms of social disparities in environmental health and the importance of the physical, social, and man-made environment. Research approaches that might help environmental justice research are also discussed, as are implications for preventive measures, public health promotion, and policy interventions intended to address social and environmental factors but leading to inequalities in health.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) and its potential use for environmental justice efforts.

Abstract: Objectives. Our primary objective was to provide higher quality, more accessible science to address challenges of characterizing local-scale exposures and risks for enhanced community-based assessments and environmental decision-making.Methods. After identifying community needs, priority environmental issues, and current tools, we designed and populated the Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) in collaboration with stakeholders, following a set of defined principles, and considered it in the context of environmental justice.Results. C-FERST is a geographic information system and resource access Web tool under development for supporting multimedia community assessments. Community-level exposure and risk research is being conducted to address specific local issues through case studies.Conclusions. C-FERST can be applied to support environmental justice efforts. It incorporates research to develop community-level data and modeled estimates for priority environmental issues, and other ...

Toxicology, Environmental Health, and the “One Health” Concept

Abstract: The One Health concept promotes collaboration among veterinarians, physicians, scientists, and other professions to promote human, animal, and ecosystem health. One Health illustrates the interconnectedness and interdependence of human, animal, and ecosystem health. This concept has traditionally focused on zoonoses that are infectious diseases, not on chemical- or poison-related illnesses in animals and their relationship to the detection and prevention of human illness. The purpose of this article is to describe key experiences of scientists in the Health Studies Branch within the National Center for Environmental of Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in which the study of animal illness facilitated a public health investigation into an outbreak of chemicalassociated human disease. The experiences highlight how utilizing the One Health approach may improve chemical-associated outbreak investigations and facilitate appropriate intervention strategies. An appropriate One Health approach in toxicology and environmental health in outbreak settings should include consideration of the common environments and food sources shared by humans and animals and consideration of the potential for contaminated animal products as food sources in human exposures.

Improving ethics analysis in health technology assessment.

Abstract: Objectives The aim of this study was to critically examine the current guidance for conducting ethics analysis in health technology assessment (HTA) and to offer recommendations for how to improve this practice. Methods MEDLINE, Philosopher's Index, and Google Scholar were searched for articles and reports using the keywords "ethics" and "health technology assessment" and related terms. Bibliographies of all relevant articles were also examined for additional references. A philosophical analysis of the existing guidance was conducted. Results We offer three recommendations for improving ethics analysis in HTA. First, ethical and legal issues must be clearly separated so that all policy-relevant questions that the technology raises can be considered clearly and systematically. Second, analysts must make better use of ethics theory and discuss better how particular theoretical approaches and associated analytic tools are selected to make transparent which alternative approaches were considered and why they were rejected. Third, the necessity for philosophical expertise to adequately conduct ethics analysis needs to be acknowledged. Conclusions To act on these recommendations for ethics analysis, we offer these three steps forward: acknowledge and use relevant expertise, further develop models for conducting and reporting ethics analyses, and make use of untapped resources in the literature.

From Endocrine Disruptors To Nanomaterials: Advancing Our Understanding Of Environmental Health To Protect Public Health

Abstract: Environmental health science is the study of the impact of the environment on human health. This paper introduces basic topics in environmental health, including clean air, clean water, and healthful food, as well as a range of current issues and controversies in environmental health. Conceptual shifts in modern toxicology have changed the field. There is a new understanding of the effects of exposure to chemicals at low doses, and in combination, and the impact on human growth and development. Other emerging topics include the role of epigenetics, or changes in genes and gene expression that can be brought about by chemical exposure; environmental justice; and potential effects of engineered nanomaterials and climate change. We review the important implications for public health policy and recommend a broad environmental health research strategy aimed at protecting and improving human health.

Nanotechnology Environmental, Health, and Safety Issues

Abstract: The environmental, health, and safety (EHS) of nanomaterials has been defined as “the collection of fields associated with the terms ‘environmental health, human health, animal health, and safety’ when used in the context of risk assessment and risk management” ([1], p 2) In this chapter, the term “nano-EHS” is used for convenience to refer specifically to environmental, health, and safety research and related activities as they apply to nanoscale science, technology, and engineering This chapter outlines the major advances in nano EHS over the last 10 years and the major challenges, developments, and achievements that we can expect over the next 10 years without providing comprehensive coverage or a review of all the important issues in this field

By parallel reasoning with bioethics: toward unity and effectiveness in the theory and practice of environmental ethics

Abstract: of a thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy BY PARALLEL REASONING WITH BIOETHICS: TOWARD UNITY AND EFFECTIVENESS IN THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

Environmental ethics: An African understanding

Abstract: Global concerns about the current environmental cri sis have culminated into some controversial environmental ethical theories, i.e., normative env ironmental ethics, sentientist ethics, biocentric ethics, ecocentric ethics and eco-feminist ethics. One of the fundamental underlying features connecting these environmental ethical theories is their grounding in Western perspectives and cultural experiences. Given that environmental conc erns are global concerns, and that the imperative of environmental ethics is challenging t hose life-threatening concerns, critical explorations of environmental ethics need to go bey ond the Western horizon. But with respect to the African perspective to environmental ethics and the people’s cultural understanding of the environmental crisis, little has been done in this penultimate area. However, Segun Ogungbemi and Godfrey Tangwa have pioneered philosophical discussions on environmental ethics from an African vantage point. Hence, Ogungbemi defends what he calls “ethics of nature-relatedness,” while Tangwa proposes “eco-bio-communitarianism” as a definitive theory of an African orientation to environmental ethics. This paper is therefore a contribution to the consolidation of an African orientation to environmental ethics thro ugh a critique and reconstruction of some of the misrepresentations of the African perspective to th e environment, implicit in the arguments of Ogungbemi and Tangwa.

An African Understanding of Environmental Ethics

Abstract: Global concerns about the current environmental crisis have culminated in some controversial environmental ethical theories, among which are normative environmental ethics, sentientist ethics, biocentric ethics, ecocentric ethics and eco-feminist ethics. One of the underlying features connecting these environmental ethical theories is their grounding in Western perspectives and cultural experiences. Given that environmental concerns are global, and that the goal of environmental ethics is to address those concerns, critical explorations of environmental ethics need to go beyond the Western horizon. Nevertheless, very few African scholars have investigated the African people’s understanding of the current environmental crisis, and the African perspective on environmental ethics. However, Segun Ogungbemi and Godfrey Tangwa have pioneered philosophical discussions on environmental ethics from an African point of view. Ogungbemi defends what he calls “ethics of nature-relatedness”, while Tangwa proposes “eco-bio-communitarianism”. This paper is a contribution to the consolidation of an African orientation in environmental ethics through a critique and reconstruction of the African perspective on the environment as presented, separately, by Ogungbemi and Tangwa. Key Words Environmental ethics; ethics of nature-relatedness; eco-bio-communitarianism

Health Policy and Ethics

Abstract: This text provides comprehensive yet concise coverage of international health policy and ethics. It promotes understanding of health policy and its influencers, and explains how policy directly affects health and health care. An in-depth review of pertinent background concepts, current issues, future needs and assessments is provided. Coverage includes: health care systems, policies, impacts and influencers; health care quality concerns; justice and access to care; social and cultural issues; regulatory actions; global public health problems. Health Policy and Ethics is an essential resource for graduate students in pharmacy administration, social pharmacy and health policy, PharmD students, and those involved in health policy decision making.

Promoting environmental justice.

Abstract: The authors reflect on environmental justice in the U.S. They suggest that to promote environmental justice in the U.S. a commitment to environmental justice needs to be made which surpasses that of the federal government. They argue that efforts are increasing in the U.S. to achieve environmental justice and hopefully the efforts will lead to an enhanced protection of environmental justice for all U.S. citizens in the future.

Is there a need for global health ethics? For and against

Abstract: Introduction To provide an answer to the question of whether we need global health ethics we set ourselves three goals in this chapter First, we explore a number of different ways that we might understand the term “global health ethics” Second, we consider the arguments that could be used either to support or dismiss what we call “substantive accounts” of global health ethics Finally, we make some suggestions in relation to what (if any) “global” obligations may bind us Our discussions will use public health as an example throughout to illustrate our points The reason for this focus is that, in our view, we ought to think of public health as providing systematic structural support for population health, with the key aim of fulfilling the basic requirements to protect health and prevent illness This is not to suggest that other forms of health care are unimportant, just that public health will fulfill a primary role in any attempt to address questions of global justice in relation to existing health inequalities Global health ethics is an important topic We do not need to accept the view that health is of special consideration in a range of possible aims or outcomes, to accept that it is, nevertheless, a key constitutive part of how well our lives go (Daniels, 1985, 2007; Segall, 2007; Wilson, 2009) Health may not be the only or the primary good to be promoted, but it is important for both prudential and ethical reasons

A renewed commitment to environmental justice in health disparities research.

Abstract: The author reflects on environmental justice an health disparities in the U.S. He suggests that there is evidence of health disparities in many locations across the U.S. He argues that the U.S. needs to become a nation where economic development, environmental protection and social capital are all equally addressed and the challenges of environmental justice and health equity are overcome.

Considering virtue: public health and clinical ethics

Abstract: As bioethicists increasingly turn their attention to the profession of public health, many candidate frameworks have been proposed, often with an eye toward articulating the values and foundational concepts that distinguish this practice from curative clinical medicine. First, I will argue that while these suggestions for a distinct ethics of public health are promising, they arise from problems within contemporary bioethics that must be taken into account. Without such cognizance of the impetus for public health ethics, we risk developing a set of ethical resources meant exclusively for public health professionals, thereby neglecting implications for curative medical ethics and the practice of bioethics more broadly. Second, I will present reasons for thinking some of the critiques of dominant contemporary bioethics can be met by a virtue ethics approach. I present a virtue ethics response to criticisms that concern (1) increased rigor in bioethics discourse; (2) the ability of normative theory to accommodate context; and (3) explicit attention to the nature of ethical conflict. I conclude that a virtue ethics approach is a viable avenue for further inquiry, one that leads us away from developing ethics of public health in a vacuum and has the potential for overcoming certain pitfalls of contemporary bioethics discourse.

Just who is at risk? The ethics of environmental regulation.

Abstract: The willingness to view risk as part of daily life has vanished. A risk-averse mindset among environmental regulators engenders confusion between the ethics of intention and the ethics of consequen...

Population and Public Health Ethics in Canada: A Snapshot of Current National Initiatives and Future Issues

Abstract: To date, some work has been undertaken to define a code and stewardship framework for public health ethics. However, gaps in our understanding and application of ethics to the field of population and public health (PPH) remain. This paper presents the approach to building capacity for PPH ethics by three national-level organizations: the Canadian Institutes of Health Research-Institute of Population and Public Health, the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy, and the Public Health Agency of Canada. By first looking at each of the organizations' respective activities and then across organizations, we synthesize our common approaches, highlight future directions and pose questions aimed at stimulating dialogue about the role of, and challenges confronting, the emerging field of PPH ethics in Canada.

What is global health

Abstract: Introduction To profess interest in global health is one of the latest trends in medicine, and many universities, especially in North America, are developing Departments or Centers of Global Health (McFarlane et al ., 2008; Drain et al ., 2009). The rapidly proliferating spectrum of new organizations, alliances and funds to address global health issues has generated a challenging new “global health landscape”( Global Health Watch 2 – People's Health Movement, Medact and the Global Equity Gauge Alliance, 2008). But it is neither entirely clear what is meant by “global health,” nor how this term is being used by a range of actors. On the one hand we need to ask if it is: (a) a description of the medically measurable health status of all individuals globally (a medically defined state of affairs); (b) an assertion about (or aspiration to) the state of health of all throughout the world (an activist agenda); (c) about providing medical treatment to all globally who are suffering from medically defined diseases (an extended biomedical approach to health); (d) a description of how health services are, or should be, structured and governed worldwide (a governance of health issue); (e) about measures to improve health governance and reduce disparities in health and health care across the globe (a global social justice issue); or (f) reference to the quest to sustain a healthy planet (an environmental health concern).