Beyond toxicity: Human health and the natural environment

doi:10.1016/S0749-3797(00)00317-2

American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Volume 20, Issue 3, April 2001, Pages 234-240

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(00)00317-2 Get rights and content

Abstract

Research and teaching in environmental health have centered on the hazardous effects of various environmental exposures, such as toxic chemicals, radiation, and biological and physical agents. However, some kinds of environmental exposures may have positive health effects. According to E.O. Wilson’s “biophilia” hypothesis, humans are innately attracted to other living organisms. Later authors have expanded this concept to suggest that humans have an innate bond with nature more generally. This implies that certain kinds of contact with the natural world may benefit health. Evidence supporting this hypothesis is presented from four aspects of the natural world: animals, plants, landscapes, and wilderness. Finally, the implications of this hypothesis for a broader agenda for environmental health, encompassing not only toxic outcomes but also salutary ones, are discussed. This agenda implies research on a range of potentially healthful environmental exposures, collaboration among professionals in a range of disciplines from public health to landscape architecture to city planning, and interventions based on research outcomes.

Section snippets

Links between health and environment

Fifty years ago the World Health Organization defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Does contact with the natural environment contribute to our “complete physical, mental, and social well-being”?

Many people appreciate a walk in the park, or the sound of a bird’s song, or the sight of ocean waves lapping at the seashore. Even if these were only aesthetic preferences, they would be of interest, since

Animals

Animals have always played a prominent part in human life.16 Today, more people go to zoos each year than to all professional sporting events.8 A total of 56% of U.S. households own pets.17 Animals comprise more than 90% of the characters used in language acquisition and counting in children’s preschool books.18 Numerous studies establish that household animals are considered family members; we talk to them as if they were human, we carry their photographs, we share our bedrooms with them.19 An

The greening of environmental health

A paradigm of environmental health that includes health as well as illness, has implications in at least three arenas: research, collaboration, and intervention.

Acknowledgements

This article was adapted from an Emory University Great Teachers Lecture delivered on 15 October 1998, and from a talk given at the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine, on 20 June 2000. Partial support came from NIEHS Environmental/Occupational Medicine Academic Award ES00257. Thanks to Beryl Cowan, Bill Harlan, Howard Hu, Dick Jackson, and Melissa Walker for valuable comments.

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¹: The full text of this article is available via AJPM Online at www.elsevier.com/locate/ajpmonline.

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Review and special articleBeyond toxicity1: Human health and the natural environment

Abstract

Section snippets

Links between health and environment

Animals

The greening of environmental health

Acknowledgements

Am J Cardiol

J Environmental Psychology

J Environ Psychol

J Environmental Psychol

J Environ Psychol

J Substance Abuse Treatment

J Substance Abuse Treat

Biodiversity lossa human health issue

Med J Australia

Health enhancement and companion animal ownership

Ann Rev Public Health

Pet ownership and risk factors for cardiovascular disease

Med J Australia

Beneficial effects of pet ownership on some aspects of human health and behaviour

J Royal Soc Med

Stressful life events and use of physician services among the elderlythe moderating role of pet ownership

J Personality Social Psychol

Comparison of contemplation and hypnosis for the reduction of anxiety and discomfort during dental surgery

Am J Clinical Hypnosis

Effects of dogs on human health

J Am Veterinary Med Assoc

Review and special article
Beyond toxicity¹: Human health and the natural environment