Volume 27, Issue 4 - Special issue: The 14th International Conference of the Pacific Basin Consortium for Environment and Health

Fetal life and childhood are the periods most vulnerable to the harmful effects of exposure to environmental insults. This is because, during these periods, there is rapid cell division, organs are being formed, and growth is rapid. Thus, disruption of these processes may result in life-long abnormalities. Of particular concern are exposures that alter cognitive function and behavior, but exposures that alter growth, development, and reproductive and immune system function and that may increase risk of development of diseases like cancer later in life are also especially important. Exposure to environmental chemicals as well as infectious agents occurs via air, food, water, and absorption through the skin. Therefore, the environment in which fetal and childhood development occurs is very important. Unfortunately, poverty is a major risk factor for both exposures and childhood and later-life disease resulting from exposures to both environmental chemicals and infectious agents. It is very important to protect children because they are the future generation.

A wide range of water problems faces nations and individuals around the world. These problems include international and regional disputes over water, water scarcity and contamination, unsustainable use of groundwater, ecological degradation, and the threat of climate change. At the heart of the world’s water problems, however, is the failure to provide even the most basic water services for billions of people and the devastating human health problems associated with that failure. In 2000, the World Health Organization reported about regularly monitoring access to water and sanitation of 89% of the world’s population, in which about 1.1 billion people lacked access to “improved water supply” and more than 2.4 billion lacked access to “improved sanitation”. The development of water and basic sanitation services in Indonesia does not indicate any significant progress in the last two decades. The prevalence of water-borne diseases tends to increase yearly, which poses a risk for a population of over a million people. Therefore, it is not realistic to achieve the Millennium Development Goals target by 2015. Redefining approaches like providing integrated programs and action in water and sanitation services must be a priority to protect human health in Indonesia.

This article demonstrates the practical application of an integrated environmental health impact assessment (IEHIA) methodology to investigate an infectious disease (leptospirosis) and the value of using such an approach to estimate future health impact. The assessment described the current health impact (using leptospirosis seroprevalence as a proxy measure) and estimated the future health impact based on scenarios that included indicators of different risk factors. The application of an IEHIA methodology to assess the health impact of an infectious disease was shown to enhance the ability to quantify associations between a disease agent and its health impact by taking into account the environmental drivers of transmission, human behaviour, socioeconomic factors, and the multiple pathways through which exposure and infection could occur.

With the increasing use and application of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) in a number industries, ENPs, through their unique properties, have made their way into the environment. However, the environmental fate and behavior of ENPs are largely unknown. Laboratory studies have shown that some ENPs have the potential for toxicity, suggesting they may affect organisms in the environment. To fully assess the risk of ENPs, a better estimation of exposure concentrations is needed. This requires an understanding of the stability and toxicity of nanoparticles (NPs) in the environment. This review presents a brief overview of the fate, behavior, and ecotoxicity of NPs in the environment. The fate and transport of NPs, which can be affected by various environmental conditions like light, pH, ionic strength, and type and concentration of cations, are important for the examination of the life cycle of NPs.

Population explosion, to the tune of ~7.2 billion, along with excessive use of natural resources and a variety of anthropogenic activities, has resulted in large-scale contamination of the environment, especially the soil and groundwater. Contamination in the environment is an ever-increasing phenomenon, and often, regulatory systems and cleaning operations are not commensurate with waste generation. It is therefore necessary to search for effective and low-cost methods, especially following and stimulating the mechanisms of nature’s cure. Bioremediation technologies resting upon the vast potential of biodiversity for the monitoring and abatement of environmental pollution have been briefly reviewed.

Elevated concentrations of arsenic in groundwater pose a public health threat to millions of people worldwide, including severely affected populations in South and Southeast Asia. Although arsenic is an established human carcinogen and has been associated with a multitude of health outcomes in epidemiologic studies, a mode of action has yet to be determined for some aspects of arsenic toxicity. Herein, we emphasize the role of recent genetic and molecular epidemiologic investigations of arsenic toxicity. Additionally, we discuss considerations for the public health impacts of arsenic exposure through drinking water with respect to primary and secondary prevention efforts.

Water shortage arising from rapid population growth and relocation has produced an unprecedented degree of stress on regional water resources. Engineered solutions to relieve water stress are frequently based on the use of water of impaired initial quality. Chief among these impaired waters is reclaimed wastewater. For the most part, however, the breadth of both acceptable uses and use-dependent degree of treatment for reclaimed wastewater remain to be established. The chief advantages of direct potable reuse (DPR) relative to other forms of wastewater reclamation and reuse are that (i) all wastewater reclaimed for DPR can be readily used in water-stressed areas and (ii) delivery to points of use does not require a separate distribution system. The drawbacks are related to the need for highly competent, continuous on-line verification of water quality and the cost of treating all reclaimed wastewater to meet potable use requirements when only a small fraction will be used for potable purposes. We have attempted to explore those differences, providing quantitative comparisons where possible, to support selection among water reuse options in water-stressed areas.

Persistent toxic substances (PTS) include the Stockholm persistent organic pollutants, like dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxin/furan, etc., and organometallic compounds, like organomercury, organotin, and organolead, which all share the same characteristics of being persistent, toxic, bioaccumulative, and able to travel long distances through different media. The adverse health effects of some of the emerging chemicals like pentabromodiphenyl ether, bisphenol A, and di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, which are widely used in daily appliances (e.g., TVs, computers, mobile phones, plastic baby bottles), have become a public health concern due to more evidence now available showing their adverse effects like disturbance of the endocrine system and cancer. This article is an attempt to review the current status of PTS in our environment, citing case studies in China and North America, and whether our existing drinking water treatment and wastewater treatment processes are adequate in removing them from water. Some management issues of these emerging chemicals of concern are also discussed.