Environmental health in emergencies and disasters (WHO, 2002)

This volume distills what is known about environmental health during an emergency or disaster. It draws on results from the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, and on experience with sustainable development between the two Earth Summits, in Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg. The volume is intenede for practitioners, as well as for policy makers and researchers, and thus cobers both general and technical aspects of environmental health.

In Part I of this volume, a conceptual framework is presented for understanding environmental health issues in the context of disaster management. The framework covers the entire disaster-management cycle, from preparedness and warning, to recovery and prevention. Guidelines are also suggested for planning for and reducing the effects of extreme events on public health, and practical guidance is given in organizational and logistical matters. Throughout, the need for flexibility and innovation at the local level is emphasized, combined with solid advance planning. There is also a focus on the vulnerability of populations during an emergency or disaster, with the implication that such people have capacities and local knowledge tha should be integrated into efforts to secure both environment and development against extreme events. The creative potencial of balancing "top-down" and "bottom-up" approaches is emphasized in chapters on health promotion and community partcipation, and on human resources.

Part II of this book is a compendium of bestparactices and strategies for risk reduction and response.

This book will be useful in planning for, responding to, and recovering from the movements of displaced persons and refugees in humanitarian crises, as well as the floods, storms, earthquakes and other extreme events that will confront health workers in the first decade of the 21st Century. Given trends over the 1990s, it is unlikely that humanity has seen the last of these challenges.