Volume 31, Issue 4: August, 2004

Introduction

Environmental Health Promotion: Bridging Traditional Environmental Health and Health Promotion

Elizabeth H. Howze, ScD, CHES, Grant T. Baldwin, PhD, MPH, CHES, Michelle Crozier Kegler, DrPH, MPH

This article highlights the juncture between environmental health and health promotion and underscores the need for health promotion involvement in environmental health practice. It begins with a synopsis of current issues in environmental public health and deficiencies in environmental public health practice that could be partly ameliorated by an increased focus on environmental health promotion. Environmental health promotion lies at the intersection between the two disciplines and can be defined as any planned process employing comprehensive health promotion approaches to assess, correct, control, and prevent those factors in the environment that can potentially harm the health and quality of life of present and future generations. An introduction is also provided to the six articles contained in this special issue focused on environmental health promotion, and a brief discussion of crosscutting themes and issues is presented.