Sick from the environment ?

From the local to the global : The globalization of environmental health

William Dab

France has long neglected environmental health. Even though health safety measures have been taken and new methods make it possible to improve prevention, have all problems been solved? Unfortunately, no. Globalization is altering the situation. Instead of remaining relatively local, crises are now total; uncertainty and universality are the common denominator. Research is globalizing in reaction to this new situation. When will there be a worldwide governance of risks?

 
The research program “Environment & health”, an assessment and prospects

Introduction : Denis Zmirou-Navier; Conclusion : Sylvaine Cordier

The balance sheet of the first phase of “Environment and health”, a program launched in 1996 to stimulate the production of know-how on health risks related to the environment, contains proof of the potential for quality research : 109 projects were selected, and research has been conducted for five years. Three of the principal specialists in the fields under study — water, cancer and reproduction — file reports. Research is continuing under the leadership of the AFSSE with the purpose of providing the government with the expert advice and scientific evidence needed to draw up public policies on health safety by setting priorities but while bearing in mind the long run.

1. Water and health

Philippe Hartemann

The situation is still precarious, even in industrialized lands : one and a half billion persons worldwide still do not have water fit to drink. We thus see how important advances in knowledge are in this field : major sources of pollution, the principal diseases, and methodological developments in risk-assessment…

2. Reproduction and the environment

Sylvaine Cordier

Our environment apparently has its share of responsibility in altering human reproduction, fertility and child development. There are hypotheses but the evidence is still too slack, despite monitoring systems and because of the difficulty of conducting epidemiological studies on this topic.

3. Cancer and the environment

Robert Barouki and Philippe Beaune

We are now certain : cancer can have genetic or environmental origins. These two types of factors are not simple to weigh however. A too clear-cut separation between them turns out to be abusively reductionist.

Cancer and the environment : How much do you want?

Denis Zmirou-Navier

The incidence of cancer, the first cause of premature deaths, has increased by 35% over the past twenty years. To what extent are environmental factors involved in this trend? How to assess them? Beyond statistics however, the environmental factor carries much less weight than unhealthy or imprudent behavior patterns, even though progress in our knowledge has led to reworking these estimates. What also counts is the social acceptability of a risk by a population that is, rightly so, more demanding and better informed — whence the need for public authorities to pursue the effort to control these menaces by intervening at the source. This the stakes in the European programs EPR and Reach.

Epidemiology in environmental health : A methodological framework with several applications closely related to the assessment of health risks

Martine Ledrans

Air pollution, waste incineration, the accident at AZF’s factory in Toulouse : how to estimate health-related risks? How to monitor them? How to assess risk-reduction policies? Monitoring procedures try to do this by using two types of overlapping, complementary tools : epidemiology and risk-assessment. Although the risks related to an exposure in the environment are often low, the impact might be considerable given the number of persons affected.

Risks to health, risks to ecosystems : Common points and differences?

Eric Vindimian

Assessing environmental risks necessitates forming a body of know-how and methods common to several disciplines. More than ever, research on the ecosystem and on health must be interrelated so as to fertilize each other.

Biodiversity against infectious diseases ?

Denis Couvet, Olivier Dehorter, Pierre-Yves Henry, Frédéric Jiguet and Romain Julliard

More and more attention is being given to infectious diseases and their control, if only for economic reasons. In this context, what can we learn from ecology, in particular from studying the interactions between human populations and pathogens? One of the major challenges in managing ecosystems is to maintain sufficient diversity so as to contain disease vectors and hosts. In this time of globalization, this objective requires joint policies.

The partial privatization of ÉDF and the fight against the greenhouse effect

Henri Prévot

 
The physics of fault lines and the prediction of earthquakes

Pascal Bernard

After two significant failures in 2004, should we give up all hope of predicting earthquakes? Seismologists have made advances in diagnosing a region’s seismic risks and predicting shifts in fault lines and their destructive effects. This progress associates theory with models and observations. Work still needs to be done to make these models operational for long- and mid-term predictions. But our major shortcoming has to do with observations. A colossal effort is being undertaken to develop the tools to make up for this.

 
What do we owe future generations?

Benjamin Huteau and Jean-Yves Larraufie

Our conceptions of time have changed radically over the past decades. The landscape has teetered, our heritage has come under question. What we leave to our children has become a concern. Why has the idea, little by little, gained ground of an obligation toward future generations? To answer this question, three ethical theories, along with their practical implications, are examined that propose a basis for this new type of obligation. It is hard to make these theories compatible and impossible to put them into practice. Nonetheless, they might help us find bearings in the moral haze and discover contradictions.