title: Environmental health: an opportunity for health promotion and disease prevention.
abstract: Variance in personal susceptibility to environmental hazards may be attributable to age, gender, previous or concomitant exposure, economic status, race, or genetic endowment. Water pollution sources can be either point sources (a well-defined source, e.g., factory waste water discharge) or non-point sources (more diffuse sources including agricultural, industrial, and urban runoff, domestic lawn care, and air pollution). Pollutants can migrate from disposal sites, underground injection wells, or underground storage systems and contaminate ground and surface drinking water sources. The annual cost of human exposure to outdoor air pollutants from all sources is estimated to be between $40 to $50 billion. The death toll from exposure to particulate air pollution generated by motor vehicles, burning coal, fuel oil, and wood is estimated to be responsible for as many as 100,000 fatalities annually in the United States. Through the identification of individuals and groups at greater risk, occupational and environmental health nurses can use primary and secondary prevention activities to protect susceptible individuals and communities from adverse exposures and environmentally related disease.
authors.affiliation: University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chalupka
mesh_terms: D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004782:Environmental Health; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D009785:Occupational Health Nursing; D011322:Primary Prevention; D012307:Risk Factors