Environmental diseases

Phagocyte-derived ROMs have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of pulmonary diseases, including emphysema, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and various environmental diseases such as asbestos-related fibrosis and cancer (Mossman and Marsh, 1985). The relatively high oxygen tension in pulmonary tissue renders the lung prone to oxidative stress (Edwards and Lloyd, 1988). 

Lead poisoning remains the most common and societal devastating environmental disease of young children. 

George Eadon is director of the Division of Environmental Disease Prevention of the New York State Department of Health and associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the State University of New York, Albany. He is actively engaged in a number of biomonitoring studies being conducted by the state of New York. Dr. Eadon has served as assistant and associate professor of chemistry and later as chairman of the Department of Environmental Health Science and Toxicology at the State University of New York, Albany. Dr. Eadon received his PhD in chemistry from Stanford University. He serves on the advisory board of New York s Environmental Public Health Tracking Grant. 

This author also wrote a small booklet entitled Chemical Sensitivity, Environmental Diseases and Pollutants How They Hurt Us, How to Deal with Them. Just 47 pages long, it is a good resource for those who do not want to put the time and effort into something more thorough, but want to be well informed.)... 

Rogers, Sherry A. Chemical Sensitivity, Environmental Diseases and Pollutants How... 

With the recognition of the special susceptibility of children, it is better to prevent than to treat environmental diseases in children. In developing countries, the most important issue may be to prioritize which exposure reductions will have the greatest overall impact with the limited resources that are available. It is important to identify the exposures that pose the greatest health risks, as well as the sources and pathways for these exposures. This information can then be used to make choices that lead to health benefits for children around the world. 

Dincsoy, H., Wessner, R.E., MacGee, X Lipogranulomas in non-fatty human livers. A mineral oil induced environmental disease. Amer. J. Clin. Pathol. 1982 78 35-41... 

Frame L, Hart R, and Leakey J (1998) Caloric restriction as a mechanism mediating resistance to environmental disease. Environmental Health Perspectives 106 313-324. 

Grandjean P, Guldager B, Larsen IB, et al. 1997a. Placebo response in environmental disease. Chelation therapy of patients with symptoms attributed to amalgam fillings. J Occup Environ Med 39(8) 707-14. 

Garry VF, Oatman L, Pleus R, et al. 1980. Formaldehyde in the home Some environmental disease perspectives. Minn Med 63 107-111. 

Landrigan, Philip J. 1992. Commentary Environmental Disease A Preventable Epidemic. American Journal of Public Health. 82(7) 941-3. 

Many suspicions, but only a small amount of scientific data demonstrate a correlation between environmental diseases , e. g., sick building syndrome and solvent exposure. 

Around the same time, a different, but also a serious enviromnental problem was coming to a head along the Jintsu River at the boarder of the Toyama and Gifu prefectures (Fig. 1). It was called the Itai-itai disease and caused by cadmium from the mines in the area. Itai means aching in Japanese. It directly suggests that the patients had experienced severe pain. The patients suffered from the deterioration of their kidneys and displayed serious anemia. This illness has been mentioned as one of the four worst environmental diseases in Japan. 

The last of the four worst environmental diseases is asthma, which was found in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture (Fig. 1). Many chemical companies were concentrated in that area. They were referred to as the Yokkaichi industrial complex, which also included other related industrial companies. As a result of their gaseous exhausts... 

Because of its detrimental effect on the intellectual potential of each new generation, lead poisoning has been called the most common and societally devastating environmental disease of young children. It affects so many people that it threatens the intelligence level and well-being of the nation as a whole. 

Lead poisoning is referred to as an environmental disease because it is caused by exposure to lead in our daily surroundings. Although we cannot see, taste, or smell it, lead is everywhere in our environment. It is not just in the obvious places, such as the emissions from a lead smelter or the peeling paint in an old house, but also in our air, water, soil, and dust. 

Rachitis was once thought to be a dietary deficiency disease because it could be prevented in children by feeding them fish liver oil. Actually, it is an environmental disease brought about by a deficiency of sunlight. Where the winter sun is weak, children may not be exposed to enough of its light to convert the 7-dehydrocholesterol in their skin to... 

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