environmental health pollution
Credit: Pixelshot

What is environmental health?

Examining a massive influence on our health: the environment.

We've been reporting on environmental health for 20 years. But what is environmental health? You've got questions, and we have answers.


What is environmental health?

Environmental health is a branch of public health that monitors the relationship between human health and the environment, examining aspects of both our natural and man-made environment and their effect on human wellbeing.

What is an example of environmental health?

factory air pollution

Living near factories or heavy traffic worsens air quality and leads to health impacts on the lungs and heart.

Credit: Kouji Tsuru/Unsplash

Environmental health is a broad area of study — everything from the climate to the food we eat to the air we breathe plays into environmental health. A few specific examples include:

  • Air pollution: Living near factories or heavy traffic worsens air quality and leads to health impacts on the lungs and heart such as asthma and increased risk of heart attacks or stroke.
  • Water contamination: Drinking lead-contaminated water can cause IQ loss, behavioral issues, learning disabilities and more. Infants and young children are most at risk.
  • Toxic chemicals in consumer products: Phthalates, a class of chemicals that are widely used in consumer products, are known endocrine-disruptors, meaning they hijack your body’s hormones and can cause a wide array of health impacts including increased risk of cancer and fertility issues.

What is the role of environmental health?

The role of environmental health research is to examine areas of the environment that impact our health so that we can make personal and policy changes to keep ourselves safe and improve human health and wellbeing.

Why is environmental health important?

chemical pollution endocrine disruptors shopping

Credit: Viki Mohamad/Unsplash

Environmental health impacts every one of us.

We reap the benefits of clean air, clean water, and healthy soil. If our environment is unhealthy, with toxic chemicals saturating our resources and pollution abundant, then our health also suffers.

It is also an important field of study because it looks at the “unseen” influences on your health.

Many individuals may not associate their health problems with air or water quality, or with what clothes they wear, makeup and household goods they use, or food they eat.

That’s because not every example of environmental health problems are obvious: some chemicals, for example, build up slowly over time in your body: a small dose may not seem to bring harm, but repeated small doses can lead to later impacts.

  • BPA absorbed through plastic containers, cans, receipts, etc. lingers in the body and the build-up over time increases risk of cancer, diabetes, liver failure, and more.
  • PFAS are known as ‘forever chemicals ’— they don’t break down and are widely used, so small exposures are frequent and contribute to immune system and reproductive damages, heightened cholesterol levels, and more.
  • Mercury from eating seafood and shellfish can impact neurological development of fetuses in the womb, and populations that regularly consume mercury-heavy seafood have shown mild cognitive impairment.

Also, individual susceptibility can differ: for example, one member of a household can experience illness, asthma, migraines, etc. from chemicals found in their water supply while another member of the same household is just fine, such as the case in a young girl’s reaction to benzene in her water from living near fracking wells.

Certain variables play a role in susceptibility and level of adverse health effects such as age, gender, pregnancy, and underlying health conditions. Studies suggest fetuses, infants and children are much more at risk to experience lifelong health problems from toxic chemical exposure.

Rate, duration, and frequency of exposure to toxic chemicals and other influences from our environment all factor into our health.

Good environmental health = good human health.

What environmental health problems affect our health?

Women water pollution

Two women extracting from a well in Senegal.

Credit: JordiRamisa

There are many environmental health issues that affect human health. These include:

Air pollution — nine out of 10 people currently breathe air that exceeds the World Health Organization’s guideline limits for air pollution worldwide. This mainly affects people in low and middle-income countries, but in the United States, people that live in cities, or near refineries or factories, are often affected as well.

Air pollution also ramps up during wildfire season.

Read more: Breathless: Pittsburgh's asthma epidemic and the fight to stop it

Water pollution — as of 2014, every year more people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war. Water is the ‘universal solvent’, meaning it can dissolve more substances than any other liquid on Earth. Thus, it is too easy for toxic chemicals to enter our water supply.

Read more: Sacred Water: Environmental justice in Indian Country

Lack of access to health care — yes, this is an environmental health issue! Having an accessible health care system is part of one’s environment. Difficulty getting health care can further impact one’s health.

Poor infrastructure — from “food deserts” to lack of transportation services, living in an area with poor infrastructure can impact your health.

Read more: Agents of Change: Amplifying neglected voices in environmental justice

Climate change — climate change-induced heat waves, increased frequency and severity of large storms, droughts, flooding, etc. have resulted in health problems and even death.

Chemical pollution — chemical pollution can be sneaky: the chemicals in your everyday products, from shampoo to deodorant to your clothing to the food you eat, can directly affect your health. These chemicals are often not on the label or regulated at all.

Read more: Exposed: How willful blindness keeps BPA on shelves and contaminating our bodies

How can we improve our environmental health?

environmental health education

Credit: instaphotos

Educate yourself. Environmental health is a broad topic, so this can seem overwhelming. Start by taking stock of your own personal environment. Look up air pollution monitoring in your area. Get your water tested to see its chemical makeup. Evaluate the products you use in your life — personal products like shampoo and deodorant, household cleaners, air fresheners, the foods that you eat — and see what you’re bringing into your home.

Explore the Environmental Working Group's guides to check your products for toxic chemicals.

We have additional guides to help you learn more about environmental health. Find guides to plastic pollution, environmental justice, glyphosate, BPA, PFAS and more in the Resources tab at the top of our website.

As individuals we have the power to improve some of our environmental health, but there is a pressing need for systemic change and regulation on a policy level.

We’re actively working with scientists to share their research and knowledge with politicians to advocate for science-backed policy change. But we need your help. Contact your representatives to let them know that environmental health is important to you — whether it’s air pollution in your area, contaminated water, plastic pollution, food deserts in your area, or chemicals in consumer products.

Subscribe to Above the Fold, our daily newsletter keeping you up-to-date on environmental health news.

environmental justice

LISTEN: Robbie Parks on why hurricanes are getting deadlier

"In places where there are high minority populations they bear, by far, the most burden of deaths from tropical cyclones."

Dr. Robbie Parks joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast for a bonus episode to discuss how hurricanes have become deadlier in recent years and how we can better protect vulnerable communities.

Keep reading...Show less
Senator Whitehouse & climate change

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.

Brown bear cubs in Japan die of starvation amid salmon shortage

As many as eight in 10 brown bear cubs born this year in a remote part of northern Japan have died amid a shortage of salmon, with experts blaming rising sea temperatures caused by the climate crisis.

How climate change is fueling alcohol-related hospitalizations

Many studies have shown that climate change threatens alcohol production around the world, from vineyards in France to whiskey distilleries in Scotland. Now there’s alarming evidence that climate change affects hospitalizations for alcohol consumption, too.

alaska fishing climate
Image by 12019 from Pixabay

As climate change and high costs plague Alaska's fisheries, fewer young people take up the trade

As some fish populations dwindle and fewer people pursue the trade, fishers and conservation groups are actively working to bring in and retain the next generation of fishers through grants and training even as the industry continues to shrink in Alaska.

peruvian amazon oil spills water
Big Stock Photo

Peruvian Amazon: Wounds remain after 50 years of oil spills on Achuar land

Achuar Indigenous people from the community of José Olaya live near sites impacted by oil-related activity in and around their territory. According to reports by Peru’s environmental authority, toxic metals like cadmium, arsenic and lead have been detected in the area.

The goats fighting fires in Los Angeles

Grazing goats are becoming a common sight in Los Angeles – can they really prevent ever bigger, fiercer wildfires?

Farmers turn to tech as bees struggle to pollinate

With bee populations struggling, mechanical pollination may be increasingly needed as a back-up.
From our Newsroom
children nature

Opinion: When kids feel the magic of nature, they will want to protect it

Improving our quality of life starts with the simple of act of getting kids outdoors.

birds climate change

In the Gulf of Maine, scientists race to save seabirds threatened by climate change

“I could see that, if successful, the methods developed could likely help these species."

fracking economics

Appalachia’s fracking counties are shedding jobs and residents: Study

The 22 counties that produce 90% of Appalachian natural gas lost a combined 10,339 jobs between 2008 and 2021.

Marathon Petroleum y una ciudad de Texas muestran una  potencial crisis de comunicaciones sobre sustancias químicas

Marathon Petroleum y una ciudad de Texas muestran una potencial crisis de comunicaciones sobre sustancias químicas

En los últimos tres años, Marathon ha violado repetidamente la ley de Aire Limpio y tuvo tres emergencias en el semestre de febrero a julio de 2023.

WATCH: How Marathon Petroleum and one Texas city show the potential for a chemical communication crisis

WATCH: How Marathon Petroleum and one Texas city show the potential for a chemical communication crisis

Marathon in Texas City has repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act and had three emergencies in the span of a six month period.

air pollution heart attack

ER visits for heart problems plummeted after Pittsburgh coal processor shut down

Levels of one highly-toxic pollutant fell by 90% and ER visits for heart problems decreased by 42% immediately after the shutdown.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.