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Inter-connections between human health and ecological integrity: An organizational framework for research and development
Citation:
Benson, W., R. Di Giulio, T. Fontaine, AND R. Hines. Inter-connections between human health and ecological integrity: An organizational framework for research and development. SETAC North America 36th Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, November 01 - 05, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
Abstraction for special session at SETAC annual meeting
Description:
A Pellston workshop entitled, Interconnections between Human Health and Ecological Integrity, was held in 2000. Jointly sponsored by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) and the Society of Toxicology (SOT), the workshop was motivated by the concern of human health, environmental, and social scientists for the interconnections between wellbeing of natural ecosystems and human health. The goal of the workshop was to initiate substantive yet broadly considered explorations of these interconnections, including creative, transdisciplinary approaches for solving environmental problems at this interface. Major themes included the biological basis of similarities and differences between human and ecosystem “health”, how the environment shapes the human sense of wellbeing and vice versa, linkages among land-use patterns, ecological degradation, and human health as well as implications of human health-ecological integrity interconnections for policy makers. One outcome of the workshop was the development of a conceptual model for mapping human health-ecological integrity interconnections that includes the natural system, composed of both the physical environment and biota, and the social system, including both culture and institutions. Each system delivers outputs to the other system. The social system, including elements such as economics, delivers pollution and other residuals to the natural system and value-added goods and services to itself. The natural system, including elements such as natural resources, provides ecological goods and services to the social system, which together support human health and well-being. With regard to an organizational framework, the scientific strengths of U.S. EPA’s National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) can be characterized as systems-based research that integrates ecological integrity with human health with the goals of protecting the environment and improving human health and wellbeing. An important component of the systems-based approach is the iterative and complementary experimental and computational research being conducted by NHEERL and other units of USEPA’s Office of Research and Development. This presentation will discuss the utility of the conceptual model developed at the joint SETAC-SOT Pellston workshop, in context of the One Health framework, as an organizational framework in research and development.