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One Health - Transdisciplinary Opportunities for SETAC Leadership in Integrating and Improving the Health of People, Animals, and the Environment
Citation:
Aguire, A., V. Beasley, T. Augspurger, W. Benson, J. Whaley, AND N. Basu. One Health - Transdisciplinary Opportunities for SETAC Leadership in Integrating and Improving the Health of People, Animals, and the Environment. ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Pensacola, FL, 35(10):2383-2391, (2016).
Impact/Purpose:
While One Health by name has been uncommon in SETAC presentations, workshops, and publications, similar concepts have been used as organizing structures. A Pellston workshop entitled, Interconnections between Human Health and Ecological Integrity, was held in 2000. 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. 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 The model was used as a foundation for a conceptual model for the Strategic Plan of EPA’s National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), a unit of EPA’s Office of Research and Development. The NHEERL conceptual model will move us towards a One Health model and did help outline a role for environmental public health. Moreover, as an applied outcome, the framework has been utilized to help drive a hiring strategy that is focused in the areas of environmental economics, decision science, predictive toxicology, watershed epidemiology, environmental public health and children’s health. With regard to an organizational framework, the scientific strengths of 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.
Description:
One Health is a collaborative, transdisciplinary effort working locally, nationally, and globally to improve health for people,animals, plants, and the environment. The term is relatively new (from ?2003), and it is increasingly common to see One Health included by name in interinstitutional research partnerships, conferences, communications, and organizational frameworks, particularly those championed by the human health and veterinary medical communities. Environmental quality is arguably the least developed component within the One Health framework, but can be guided by expertise within the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC). Despite SETAC’s long history of tripartite (academic, government, business) interdisciplinary environmental science activities, the term “One Health” is seldom used in SETAC communications (i.e., many of SETAC’s activities are guided by One Health, but it is called by other names in SETAC’s journals, newsletters, and presentations). Accordingly, the objective of this Focus article is to introduce the One Health concept to the SETAC membership. The article discusses the origins, evolution, and utility of the One Health approach as an organizationalframework and provides key examples of ways in which SETAC expertise can benefit the One Health community. The authors assert that One Health needs SETAC and, to be most effective, SETAC needs One Health. Given that One Health to date has focused too little on the environment, on ecosystems, and on contaminants, SETAC’s constructive involvement in One Health presents an opportunity to accelerate actions that will ultimately better protect human and ecosystem health.
