Persistent toxic substances: exposed individuals and exposed populations

摘要

On the lintel of his classic The strategy of preventive medicine, Geoffrey Rose (1926-1993) inscribed these words of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881): "We are all responsible for all". The idea that as citizens and societies we have shared, common responsibilities in front of threats to health is central to epidemiology, public health, even to clinical medicine... and to virtually all other professions and scientific disciplines. Why should it not also be relevant to urbanism, pedagogy, biology, or chemistry? It is of course also central to literature and most other forms of artistic expression.