U.S. Geological Survey Environmental Health Science Strategy-Providing Environmental Health Science for a Changing World.

摘要

ChallengesAmerica has an abundance of natural resources. We have bountiful clean water, fertile soil, and unrivaled national parks, wildlife refuges, and public lands. These resources enrich our lives and preserve our health and wellbeing. These resources have been maintained because of our history of respect for their value and an enduring commitment to their vigilant pro-tection. Awareness of the social, economic, and personal value of the health of our environment is increasing. The emergence of environmentally driven diseases caused by environmental exposure to contaminants and pathogens is a growing concern worldwide. New health threats and patterns of established threats are affected by both natural and anthropogenic changes to the environment. Human activities are key drivers of emerg-ing (new and re-emerging) health threats. Societal demands for land and natural resources, quality of life, and economic prosperity, lead to environmental change. Natural earth processes (such as erosion and weathering), climate trends, and related climatic events will compound the environmental impact of human activities. These environmen-tal drivers will influence exposure to disease agents includ-ing viral, bacterial, prion, and fungal pathogens, parasites, synthetic chemicals and substances, natural earth materials, toxins and other biogenic compounds (fig. 1). Environmental drivers, such as climate change, may also affect an organ-isms sensitivity to contaminants in the environment (Stahl and others, 2013). Organisms can be exposed to environmental contamination through multiple routes of exposure (consump-tion, inhalation, contact) and in many forms (drinking water, food, air, soil, sediment, dusts, and other aerosols), which are affected by contaminant occurrence and distribution in the environment (table 1). Similarly, pathogens spread in the environment and via other living organisms, and are transmit-ted to other organisms or people via host-to-host transmis-sion, vector-borne transmission, or environmental exposure (table 1).