Environmental health conceptualization: theory and practice (part 1)

Abstract

This article reviews health definitions and postulates in their broadest sense, emphazising its intimate relationship with the environment surrounding human beings, considering the environment as a living organism or system we live in, and taking into account that any positive or negative action results in its respective reaction. There is also a close relationship with socio-economic development, since the latter cannot exist without good health. So there is a new and wider concept of environmental health as a science on its own, integrating the so called determinant factors. The different fields of action for environmental health are presented, in which a specially trained multidisciplinary team must approach the role of solving problems originated by human beings rather than ‘environmental’ problems.