Critical condition : human health and the environment /

A concise and compelling book that effectively warns the world that human health and even life itself are threatened by the inadvertent destruction of our physical environment. Beginning in 1961, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) successfully campaigned to warn the world about the medical consequences of nuclear war. Now with the threat of nuclear war perhaps waning, PSR point out that a complex weave of environmental degradation presents a frightening but somewhat obscured threat to public health. Included for consideration are the world's subtle and sometimes delocalized problems including acid rain, high urban ozone levels, stratospheric ozone depletion, habitat destruction, species extinction, global warming, and the general dispersal of toxic and radioactive substances. Population, armaments, and war are indicted co-conspirators in their threats to human health, and physicians are urged to play a prominent role by informing the public about environmental hazards. All levels.

The most fascinating statistic presented in this collection of articles written by subject specialists is that ``more that 90 million persons are added to the global population each year--roughly the population of Mexico.'' This is among many interesting facts concerning the environment and its impact on human health. Each chapter is extensively researched and supported with facts from the current literature. Recent events like the Gulf War are evaluated for their environmental impact on human health. Though the book is directed at both the environmentally aware lay reader and the physician, the recommendation on treating and combating the environmental health hazard that concludes each chapter is directed to the latter only. For large public, academic, and environmental libraries.-- Jeanine McAdam, Mt. Sinai Medical Ctr. Lib., New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.